Efforts aimed at primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases, the major killer of contemporary adult populations, largely rely on modification of risk behaviours related to smoking, physical activity, dietary intake, and alcohol consumption, and also control of obesity and hypertension, the interim risk states between health and disease. We propose that the extent to which the gene x ‘obesogenic’ environment interaction depends on associations between particular single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and behavioural risk factors for overweight or obesity determines opportunities for novel, personalised preventive interventions. We systematically searched for SNPs that might be of interest for this postulate, and we present various SNPs that have been shown to be associated with overweight or obesity and behavioural risk factors for developing these traits, and thus hold promise for future design of personalised preventive interventions.