A FORK IN THE CODE
Fitness buffs are now shelling out hundreds for genetic tests that tell them what to eat. But are the high-tech diets better than common sense?
IN July 2016, personal trainer Donald Benjamin paid $300 to get the kind of news that most people dread: He should stop eating cheese.
“Although I’ve never had any symptoms, genetically, I’m lactose intolerant,” says the 27-year-old fitness fanatic, who learned about that sensitivity and other nutritional needs from DNAFit, an at-home testing kit that supplies dietary and fitness recommendations based on users’ individual genes. “And I love cheese,” he says. “I really love it.”
Still, Benjamin tried giving up dairy for two whole months. “I think I did feel a little better,” says the West Long Branch, NJ, resident, who admits it was curiosity, rather than a specific health or weightloss goal, that initially tempted him to take the test in the first place. “What I think it did most for me was help me to stop eating cheese mindlessly.”
Health nuts are turning their homes into mini medical labs, swabbing their cheeks or spitting into vials to collect samples of their DNA, just as they would for companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe. But, instead of supplying fun facts about their family tree, companies such as DNAFit ($300), Vitagene ($99) and Fitgenetix ($495) turn genetic information into personalized advice about everything from caffeine sensitivity to sugar intake.
“Since we debuted on the market in 2014, our