TOTEMIC didn't start as the brand you're looking at now.

The original concept was far more ambitious. A hyper-personalised supplement system, adjusting everything down to the granular detail. The idea had a certain appeal. More data, more precision, better outcomes. 

Two things dismantled it. The first was practical: the logistics to automate that level of customisation at scale simply don't exist yet. The second was more fundamental. The more we fleshed the concept out, the clearer it became that we were designing something that would confuse and overwhelm the very people we were trying to help. If TOTEMIC's purpose is to 'support movement through better, simpler fuelling', we were heading in exactly the wrong direction.

So we started asking a different question: what actually works?

One thing we looked at was DNA-based nutrition. The idea is compelling: swab your cheek, unlock your perfect diet, stop guessing. We were sceptical, but curious. Turns out we were right to be cautious. A recent Stanford trial (600 participants, $8 million in funding, the most rigorous study of its kind to date) found no meaningful difference in outcomes between people with a supposedly DNA aligned diet and those without. 

You can almost hear the screams from the DNA based diet companies.

The DNA idea was that your body genetically responded better to either a low fat or low carb diet. It turned out to make no difference to weight loss, both groups lost a comparative amount of weight.  And DNA type had no correlation. So the low carb v low fat debate would also seem to have been axed by this study, though that battle seems to have a lot of fight left in it so we won't hold our breath.

What this points to, again, is that the more elaborate the system, the smaller the outcomes. Genetics matter. Individual biology matters. But a saliva swab cannot yet tell you how to eat. Building a product around the idea that it can is, for now, more marketing than science.

The answer is, as usual, a lot more boring: Move well. Eat well. Sleep well. 
We call these the 3 pillars. Build off those and you're most of the way there.

You can read a full article on the study here.

Or the full study here.