Research pick: An algorithmic approach to healthy eating - "A prototype for intelligent diet recommendations by considering disease and medical condition of the patient"

Diet plays an important role in health. A study in the International Journal of Business and Systems Research has looked closely at the relationship between nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. It is worth noting that despite increasing public awareness of the link between poor diet and disease, many people struggle to make healthy choices for themselves.

The researchers, Suvendu Kumar Nayak, Sangram Keshari Swain, of Centurion University of Technology and Management, Mamata Garanayak Kalinga of the Deemed to be University, and Bijay Kumar Paikaray of the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be) University, Odisha, India, point out that tracking food intake and nutritional value and making informed dietary choices can be overwhelming. This then can lead to bad habits that contribute to the risk of chronic illness.

In recognizing this gap between information and application and nutritional awareness, the researchers have proposed a new approach to offering personalized dietary advice that is tailored to individual health profiles and preferences. Their system determines a patient’s nutritional needs in conjunction with their medical history and current health conditions using the K-Nearest Neighbours (K-NN) algorithm. The algorithm, trained on data from a range of people with different conditions and dietary requirements, allows it to find the optimal diet most beneficial to the current patient.

The team explains that by introducing a structured approach to nutrition using their approach, it might be possible to reduce the dietary risk factors associated with many chronic diseases. This could improve health for individuals but also lower the burden on healthcare systems. There is already a growing trend towards personalized healthcare, such as fitness trackers and other health apps, the addition of dietary tools will help guide those individuals who hope to improve their health in these and other ways.

Nayak, S.K., Garanayak, M., Swain, S.K. and Paikaray, B.K. (2024) ‘A prototype for intelligent diet recommendations by considering disease and medical condition of the patient’, Int. J. Business and Systems Research, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp.515–538.