chennai thilagavathi karthe didnt realise she was lactose intolerant till she did a dna test as part of a workplace health programme after following the diet plan drawn up by the nutritionist the 44yearold chennaiite is feeling better than she has in a whilebengalurubased manju nath krishnappa however opted for a similar test to up his fitness levels the 36yearold feels the results of the test have helped tailor his diet and exercise regime to offer optimum resultsacross the country physicians nutritionists sports coaches and fitness trainers are using nutrigenomic or nutrigenetic tests which explore the relationship between food and genes to help their clients attain fitness goals but while the trend is slowly cat ching on some doctors remain sceptical and say it is still not at a stage where they can recommend itat present there are about five laboratories across the co five laboratories across the country that offers these testsnutrigenetics nutrition genetics aims to identify how genetic variation affects response to nutrients this knowledge can be applied to be healthy and prevent or treat diseases says shah fahad husami founder and director of adams genetics in delhiusually spit samples or cheek swabs are used for testing and the price depends on the test panels involved he saidin chennai xcode life sciences offers these servicesthe tests start as low as 900 but price varies from product to product says abdur rub chief technology officer at xcode who adds that after the genetic analysis a diet and ex ercise regimen is created by a nutrigenomic counsellormost nutritionists in india are unaware of the potential nutrigenomics training holds for their dietetics practicenow dieticians mostly rely on trialanderror methods for their dietrelated consulta tions says dr amol raut ceo of genesupport laboratory in pune adding that most of his patients come for weight management programmessince gluten and lactose sensitivity is still not well understood in india we do not ha ve patients coming for its assessment but many a time tests point at this kind of sensitivity a change in diet rids them of their problems he addsnutrigenomics is also being heralded as the future of sports nutrition i do insist that kids who are naturally gifted and have an affinity for sports take this test says ryan fernando chief nutritionist qua nutrition who has worked with athletes such as olympian and wrestler sushil kumar and cricketers robin uthappa and harbhajan singhi have used this test on cricketer shikhar dhawan and removed certain foods in his diet that would hinder recovery says fernando who also worked with actor aamir khan to help him achieve the physique of a wrestler in the upcoming movie dangal these tests do show that some people have a better genetic advantage to becoming sports champions when we started in 2011 we had seven athletes a month as clients today we get over 100 athletes of which at least 15 take up the sports nutrigenomic plan says fernando most labs