ABSTRACT

Personalized nutrition focuses on the value of health in choosing food, and prejudges an individualizing policy instead of a public health nutrition policy; it is faced with many uncertainties and is difficult to reconcile with research outcomes. Personalized nutrition raises many issues of ethical concern. The three main issues are mostly approached from a utilitarianist or rights-based perspective of individual autonomy (informed consent or informed choice) that aims at protecting individuals against harmful interventions. However, it is also fruitful to develop a more collective and proactive ethical perspective, because of the collective consequences of individual choices. The first ethical issue is that of the relationship between food and health (drugs), which is at present subject to rather strict regulation. Owing to the rise of nutrigenomics, new gray zones emerge, for instance, when food becomes a preventive drug or when drugs are used by nonpatients, as in the case of enhancement medicine. There are no compelling arguments against new developments, but we are in need of debate about coping with the ethical impacts. The second issue is that of the relations between personalized and public health nutrition, which requires

new responsibilities of both consumers and producers in incorporating health concerns into pluralist food styles. The third one covers ethical issues of making use of personalized nutrition and requires consultations between consumers and professionals. Moreover, independent gatekeepers are necessary to safeguard the independence of testing, marketing, communicating, and providing the services.