Beyond One Size Fits All: Personalized Nutrition for Type 2 Diabetes
November 12, 2026 | 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Speakers:
- Ahmed El-Sohemy, PhD (University of Toronto): "Genetic testing for personalized nutrition"
- Sara Mahdavi, RD, MSc, PhD (University of Toronto): "Personalized Nutrition and Individualized Treatment Planning in Diabetes Care and Beyond"
Webinar description:
Advances in genetic testing are creating new opportunities to personalize nutrition recommendations for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. While traditional dietary guidance is largely based on population-level evidence, emerging research suggests that genetic differences can influence individual responses to dietary components and may help explain why the same dietary approach does not produce the same metabolic outcomes in everyone.
This session will explore the science and clinical application of genetic testing for precision nutrition in type 2 diabetes. Participants will learn how genetic variation can influence glycemic responses, insulin sensitivity, and responses to specific dietary factors, and how this information can be integrated with conventional clinical and lifestyle factors to inform more personalized nutrition recommendations. The session will also examine the evidence supporting DNA-based dietary interventions and highlight important considerations when evaluating and implementing genetic testing in practice.
Participants will leave with a practical understanding of the opportunities and limitations of genetic testing for precision nutrition and how emerging evidence can be translated into more personalized approaches to type 2 diabetes prevention and management.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the webinar participants will be able to:
- Describe how genetic variation can contribute to differences in metabolic responses to diet and influence risk factors relevant to type 2 diabetes
- Examine the evidence supporting the use of genetic information to personalize nutrition recommendations for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes.
- Identify practical opportunities and important considerations for integrating genetic testing with dietary, lifestyle, and clinical information to support precision nutrition in practice
Moderator: To be confirmed
About the Speakers:
Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy - is a Professor and Associate Chair at the University of Toronto and held a Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics. He is also the Founder of Nutrigenomix Inc. and serves as Chief Science Officer. Dr. El-Sohemy obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has given more than 400 invited talks around the world. The goal of his research program in nutrigenomics is to identify genetic markers that predict response to various dietary factors on a variety of health and performance outcomes. He has supervised dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and developed one of the first university courses on personalized nutrition. Dr. El-Sohemy is on the editorial board of 8 scientific and medical journals and served as an expert reviewer for more than 40 other journals and 12 granting agencies. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Genes & Nutrition, which is one of the leading journals in the field of personalized nutrition. He has over 14,000 citations with an H-index of 65. Dr. El-Sohemy has served on Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Board and several international expert advisory panels. His research has garnered considerable media attention. Dr. El-Sohemy received the Centrum Foundation New Scientist Award for Outstanding Research by the Canadian Nutrition Society, the Mark Bieber Professional Award by the American College of Nutrition and the Stanley Wallach Award for excellence in research by the American Nutrition Association. In 2026, he was awarded the Sustained Career Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship Award by the University of Toronto.
Dr. Sara Mahdavi - is a clinician–scientist whose work connects nutritional genomics, precision health, and the science of longevity. An International Scholar and scientific collaborator at Harvard University, she investigates how nutrition, lifestyle, and genetics shape health and aging using the landmark Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study cohorts. To date, this is the largest, longest and most detailed study of human aging, that recently celebrated its 50th year of running with over 300,000 participants. She is also a clinician and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Her research addresses a fundamental question in medicine: why does the same exposure benefit one person while placing another at risk? Her findings linking genetic differences in caffeine metabolism with hypertension and kidney dysfunction challenge the assumption that dietary advice applies equally to everyone. Her broader work brings gene–environment interactions and multiomics perspectives to individualized approaches to cardiometabolic health and healthy aging.
Dr. Mahdavi’s interdisciplinary training began at Western University, where she studied biology with a specialization in marine biology and earned an honours bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology and Clinical Nutrition. These studies sparked her enduring interest in the connections between environmental and human health. Following a postgraduate clinical dietetic internship at the University of Manitoba, she became a registered dietitian and worked in renal care while completing an MSc in Clinical Exercise Physiology focused on patients receiving dialysis.
She subsequently earned her PhD at the University of Toronto, studying nutritional genomics and early indicators of cardiometabolic risk in young adults. Her research training continued with two postdoctoral fellowships: at the University of Padova, where she investigated the relationship between genetics, coffee consumption, and kidney dysfunction in adults with early-stage hypertension; and at Harvard University, where she examined longitudinal interactions between nutrition, lifestyle, and genetics to understand differing trajectories of aging and longevity in women and men.
As founder of DNA Doctors Health and Wellness Institute, Dr. Mahdavi brings this breadth of scientific and clinical experience to patient care, translating research into personalized strategies for prevention, metabolic health, and longevity.
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