Hi again. Here is my blog post on nutrition, genes and health!

In the past nutrition research focused on impairment of health and nutrient deficiencies. Nutrigenomics has created the opportunity to deepen the understanding of how nutrients deepen gene expression, protein biosynthesis and metabolism. Nutrigenomics is the study of the genome influence on nutrition. It applies genomics technologies in food technology and nutritional sciences. Nutrigenetics is how an individual is genetically programmed to respond in a certain way to a nutrient. It deals with our genetic variation and how this manages our response to certain nutrition.

Nutrition science needs to understand the mechanism of nutrient dependent interactions at genetic molecular protein production and metabolic profile levels. The main aim of nutrigenetics is to clarify the impact of the variability of genes on the interactions between nutrients and diseases. Nutrigenomics studies the genome broad impact on nutrition.

Examples of nutrigenomics: phenylketonuria patients need to avoid phenylalanine rich food. Deficiency of aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme which metabolizes ethanol.  This results in annoying manifestation of individuals after consuming alcohol – this is seen in many Asian populations.

Examples of nutrigenetics:

MTHFR is involved in the metabolism of folic acid and maintaining normal blood level of homocysteine. A particular MTHFR gene SNP is linked with elevated homocysteine levels in the blood especially if there is a deficiency of folic acid in the diet. This is associated with cardiovascular diseases and raised predisposition of colon cancers (especially if there is a inadequate amount of folic acid in the diet when compared to recommended daily requirement.

Ethics and social issues:

For nutrigenomic developments it is important how the message is communicated and by whom. Consumers fear the consequences of characterisation of genome and identification of mutations of highly penetrant genes i.e. those responsible for forms of cancer. The consequence of this could impact an individual’s ability to gain employment, insurance or finance. The benefit in relation to the prevention of disease – knowledge of a person’s genetic profile could be used to create specific risk reducing actions involving diet which could reduce risk of disease and improve quality of life.

I will discuss genetic modified foods next week, an interesting and controversial topic!