Nutritional Genomics - Personalized Nutrition

How Food Components Affect Genes that Result in Health or Disease

Apr 24, 2009 Alicia Richardson

There is a lot of truth in the old adage "you are what you eat." Nutrigenomics, investigates the interaction between nutrients and genes and how they are manifested.

Every person alive today is affected by nutrigenomics - a new science that delves into the interaction between food components and genes that either leads to health or disease. Since every human being must eat in order to live, and every human body contain genetic materials - a profoundly dynamic relationship - nutrigenomics poses far-reaching effects on health and longevity.

Health experts claim that many Western diseases such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, obesity, etc. have strong genetic and food links. They suggest that by increasing plant derived whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, and whole grains; less red meat - more fish, and less processed foods; one can mitigate the burden of genetically induced diseases.

For example, there is increasing evidence that antioxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C, carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, etc.), flavonoids (hesperitin, quercetin, caffeic acid, etc), affect gene expression.food-facts.suite101.com/article.cfm/avocado_persea_gratissima_persea_americana

Antioxidants have the ability to block gene expression thereby inhibiting adverse metabolic pathways. For instance, flavonoids can down-regulate Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) - a transcription factor that regulates genes involved in inflammatory and immune responses, tumor production, and apoptosis (cell suicide). Chronic inflammation has been linked with atherosclerosis, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, obesity, arthritis, etc.

A number of key genes involved in the development of atherosclerosis are regulated by NF-kappa B including those encoding for cytokines, chemoattractants, and cell adhesion proteins such as monocyte chemotactic protein or MCP-1- a member of the small inducible gene family. MCP-1 has been linked with insulin resistance, fatty liver, and obesity. Cytokines are proteins secreted by immune system cells that act as messengers to help regulate an immune response.

Improving Health Outcomes and Risk Reduction

There are more than 25,000 biologically active food components. Researchers have uncovered the mode of action of some compounds, but many more are still unknown. Government health agencies, health professionals, and primary care givers have emphasized the importance of following a healthy lifestyle:

• consuming a wide variety of foods including fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats: nuts, seeds, unhydrogenated vegetable oils e.g. virgin olive oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, lean meats, lower-fat dairy and dairy products,
• engaging in regular physical activity preferably, 60 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/stay_active_eat_like_a_champion
• avoiding smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages in excess
• getting sufficient rest and sleep
• taking steps to reduce stress, if it is a factor to be considered

Additional Points to Remember

• Under certain situations and in some persons, diet can be a serious risk factor for a number of diseases.
• Common dietary chemicals can act on human genes either directly or indirectly to change gene expression or structure.
• The degree to which diet (nutrition) affects the balance between health and disease may depend on a person's genetic make-up or inheritance.
• Certain diet-related genes (and their normal, common variant) are likely to play a role in the beginning, incidence, progression, and/or severity of chronic diseases.
• Dietary intervention based on knowledge or nutritional needs, status, and genotype can be used to prevent, mitigate or cure chronic diseases.

Nutrigenomics is a young science, but new discoveries are happening everyday. As new knowledge is gained, vital information may hold the key in addressing global malnutrition and disease.

References

The National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities for Nutritional Genomics (NCHMD) Web site

Jono H et. al. "NF-kappa B is essential for induction of CYLD, the negative regulator of NF-kappa B: evidence for a novel inducible autoregulatory feedback pathway" J Biol.Chem. 2004 August 27;279(35):36171-4

The copyright of the article Nutritional Genomics - Personalized Nutrition in Nutrition is owned by Alicia Richardson. Permission to republish Nutritional Genomics - Personalized Nutrition in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Fruits et vegetables

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