REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrigenomics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1638843
This article is part of the Research TopicGenome-based Nutrition Strategies for Preventing Diet-related Chronic Diseases: Where Genes, Diet, and Food Culture Meet, Volume IIView all 4 articles
Precision nutrition across climates: decoding diet, tradition, and genomic adaptations from South Asia to the Arctic
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- 2Department of Human Genetics, KU Leuven, leuven, Belgium
- 3Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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Human populations have developed distinct genetic adaptations to diet in response to changes in lifestyle and environments in which they live. Particularly contrasting patterns of dietary adaptations are expected in populations living in tropical versus extreme cold environments.This article explores the genetic, dietary, and microbiome-related adaptations in populations of South Asia and the Arctic. We review adaptations related to high-carbohydrate, plant-based diets in South Asians and compare these against adaptations in Arctic populations who have evolved to rely on fat-and protein-rich diets from marine and animal sources. We discuss how these genetic adaptations interact with traditional diets and microbiomes, and the implications for chronic disease risks as modern, westernized diets disrupt ancestral gene-diet-microbiome interactions. By comparing these regions, we highlight the need for genome-based nutrition created strategies that account for genetic diversity, local dietary traditions, and environmental context to promote precision health and prevent diet-related chronic diseases. This analysis offers new insights into how nutrition, culture, and genetics intersect in shaping populationspecific health outcomes.
Keywords: Genetic Variation, natural selection, Traditional diet, South Asia, Arctic, nutrigenetics, Precision nutrition, genome nutrition
Received: 31 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pathak, Kolesnikova, Sambreker, Org and Kivisild. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ajai K. Pathak, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
Toomas Kivisild, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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