Neil Grimmer, founder and CEO of personalised nutrition company Habit, will keynote at this year’s Global Wellness Summit, set to take place 6-8 October in Italy.

Grimmer is committed to revolutionising how the world looks at nutrition and healthy eating by challenging “one size fits all” approaches in the multi-billion-dollar diet industry.

The 2018 Summit, which is the 12th-annual gathering of wellness industry leaders, will focus on the current business landscape and future trends for the ten diverse segments that make up the global wellness economy, including the US$648bn (€524bn, £456bn) healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss sector. The theme of this year’s conference is “Shaping the Business of Wellness.”

Grimmer’s first foray into food and nutrition started when he co-founded Plum Organics, a company that disrupted the baby food aisle by replacing traditional prepared foods with a fresh, organic alternative. In 2013, Plum was sold to Campbell’s Soup, but Grimmer remains an active chair of the board of Plum Organics.

After the success of Plum, Grimmer found himself overweight and at risk of long-term health issues. His personal journey – trips to doctors, nutritionists and geneticists – prompted the founding of Habit, which was launched with a US$32m (€25.9m, £22.5m) investment from Campbell’s.

Habit measures and integrates more than 60 nutrition-related blood, metabolic and genetic biomarkers, collected through an at-home test kit to determine the ideal foods and nutrients needed to reach dietary and fitness goals.

“Neil is on a mission to change the world through food and is the living embodiment of his work,” said Susie Ellis, chair and CEO of the GWS. “His passion for holistic health and wellness – and how to achieve it – will no doubt inspire Summit delegates.”

Ellis noted that Grimmer has turned the old adage ‘you are what you eat’ on its head by building a business model around ‘you should eat what you are.’ Initial findings show that 74 per cent of Habit users are able to lose weight by following a plan designed specifically for their body type and metabolism.

“Habit is the ultimate response to the ineffective ‘trial and error’ process of fad dieting, and is founded on the deep science called ‘systems biology,’” said Grimmer. “We’re at a point where personalisation is possible and also highly accessible. Our entire mission at Habit is to optimise wellness through the understanding of the entire body, and I can’t think of a better audience to share this with than the delegates at the Global Wellness Summit.”

Grimmer was recently named Innovator of the Year by Nutrition Business Journal; is the recipient of an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award; a fellow at the Aspen Institute and can be seen talking about personalized nutrition in his popular TEDx Talk, “Food Just Got Personal”.

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