Personalized diet platform boosts microbiome diversity

NutraIngredients reported on May 22 that a one-month study of a personalized diet platform found higher microbiome diversity in about 70% of participants who received guided recommendations, citing a paper published this month in *Nutrients*. The study evaluated GENIE, a digital platform that combines blood markers, nutrigenetic data, gut microbiota information and consumer preferences to generate food-shopping and recipe recommendations. Researchers said the trial also showed strong user engagement, with average session time of 7.07 minutes and a 154% increase in e-commerce use. The paper, published on May 11, 2026, described a single-arm study in Spain involving 1,177 participants using a specific online food retailer. The authors included researchers from i3S—Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde in Porto, GUNDO Health and Food in Bilbao, and ADN Institut in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Veronica Fernandes was listed as corresponding author. ### How was the platform tested? (mdpi.com) The *Nutrients* paper said the 1,177 participants were split into three groups based on the level of biological data used for recommendations. Group 1, with 620 people, received advice based on biochemical blood tests. Group 2, with 357 people, also included nutrigenetic testing. Group 3 included gut microbiome testing, with two batches of 200 and 97 participants. (mdpi.com) After one month of tailored dietary advice, the researchers conducted a quantitative evaluation of the experience. The platform was designed to connect personalized recommendations to online food purchasing and recipe suggestions rather than offer only static diet guidance. ### What were the main numbers? The study reported that 71% of participants followed at least part of the recommendations. (mdpi.com) The same paper said the intervention was associated with an increase in microbiome diversity in about 70% of participants after one month of guided recommendations. The engagement figures were also central to the findings. Researchers reported mean session time of 7.07 minutes and a 154% rise in e-commerce use during the study period. (mdpi.com) NutraIngredients highlighted those results in its May 22 coverage as evidence that participants kept using the platform while receiving stepwise feedback and app-based support. ### What does “microbiome diversity” mean here? (mdpi.com) The paper referred to “gut microbiota composition” and reported an increase in microbiome diversity, but the abstract available through MDPI did not specify in that summary which diversity metric was used. The result, as presented, was that diversity increased in about 70% of participants over one month while they were following personalized advice. (mdpi.com) Nature Medicine published separate research in 2026 showing that app-based diet logs and shotgun metagenomics can be used to map diet-microbiome associations at species-level resolution in more than 10,000 individuals. That work is not the same trial, but it shows the broader research setting in which diet platforms are increasingly being paired with sequencing and digital food tracking. (mdpi.com) ### How should readers read this study? The *Nutrients* paper described the GENIE trial as a single-arm study, meaning the abstract does not indicate a randomized control group for comparison. The authors said their objective was to test whether a personalized nutrition service could produce measurable changes in nutritional behavior and biological outcomes in a real-world shopping setting. The authors concluded that GENIE offers what they called a “pragmatic model” for translating nutrigenetic and microbiome data into dietary recommendations tied to consumer behavior. (nature.com) That conclusion was the researchers’ characterization of the platform’s role, based on the one-month study. ### What comes next? The May 11 *Nutrients* publication gives the first formal record of the one-month GENIE results, and NutraIngredients’ May 22 report brought those findings to a wider industry audience. (mdpi.com) Any next step is likely to come through follow-up publication, additional cohorts or longer-duration testing by the named research teams at i3S, GUNDO Health and ADN Institut.