• What is it?
• Examples of study
• Importance
• Risks
• Practical applications
• Summary

Nutrigenomics is the scientific field that studies how human genetics and nutrition interact and how they affect a person’s health, well-being, and proneness to disease.

The body responds to food and nutrition in various ways, including how genetics plays a role and how diet can affect gene expression. Food plays an important part in the illnesses and diseases a person may develop.

This article explains the science of nutrigenomics and how genes and food nutrients interact on a molecular level.

What is nutrigenomics?

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Nutrigenomics analyses how genes and nutrition interact and how diet affects gene expression, essentially how information in a gene becomes a function. This can help researchers understand how diet affects health and how the body responds to food.

Nutrigenomics can also help a person understand how certain diseases and illnesses develop in the body and the risk of these diseases developing in the first place. It also helps researchers find new ways to treat and prevent diseases.

The food a person eats, and supplements they may take can affect gene expression. The expression of different genes as proteins, known as a person’s phenotype, can alter or modify how a person:

• digests food
• absorbs nutrients
• synthesizes nutrients taken from food
• metabolizes food

Nutrigenomics was established in 2003 through groundbreaking research, but as a young field of study, further research into the discovery of genes and diet interaction is still necessary.

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What is an example of nutrigenomics?

Many aspects of a person’s environment affect how the body reacts and, more importantly, how the body reacts on a molecular level. Diet is a large part of the environmental influence on the body, and all the different compounds available in food have different effects.

An example of nutrigenomics would be studying how the body synthesizes vitamin D, which affects various physiological functions such as forming bones and controlling metabolism.

The body makes vitamin D from precursors or substances provided by foods such as oily fish and egg yolks or from dietary supplements. The body also produces the precursors for vitamin D, and sunlight is necessary for the final step in its synthesis.

The breakdown products, or metabolites, of vitamin D and vitamin D itself can interact with the genome to alter gene expression, affecting how the body produces or responds to vitamin D in the future.

The study of nutrigenomics helps people understand why their bodies or genes may react this way. This may also help people understand whether they need supplements to aid their overall health.

Other examples may include:

• Polyphenols: Research shows that dietary polyphenols may alter gene expression and cell processes, affecting human health. Nutrigenomics can help us understand how polyphenolic compounds benefit human health on a molecular level.
• Vitamin A: Beta carotene, a pigment found in fruits and vegetables such as carrots, converts into vitamin A, which our body uses for various processes such asTrusted Source growth development and immunity. Some people, however, with certain gene mutations, may not have enough of the enzymes necessary to break down or metabolize beta carotene and so will require additional vitamin A from supplements or their diet.
• Lactose intolerance: Lactose intolerance stems from low gut concentrations of enzymes known as galactosidaseTrusted Source. By understanding how nutrition alters gene expression, nutrigenomics can help create diets that specifically cater to those with lactose intolerance or allergies to dairy.

Why is nutrigenomics important?

Nutrigenomics is important and beneficial for a variety of reasons:

• It can help create personalized nutrition, diet, and supplements for each individual.
• It works toward preventing diseases and illnesses.
• It can help a person understand why the body may react in certain ways to particular foods with a closer look at gene mutations.
• It can help in understanding which genetic variants are prone to certain diseases and conditions, so early steps can be taken for prevention.
• It gives people motivation to work on their own health goals, with clear and personal insight into their own body.

Research states that diet could prevent 1 in every 5 deaths worldwide. Nutrigenomics can help people understand how diet affects their bodies and how they will react to certain foods, and most importantly, it can prevent diet-related deaths.

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Risks of nutrigenomics

Nutritional research is complex and not without risks or challenges. Some challenges of nutrigenomics may include:

• Ethical challenges: Nutrigenomics involves harnessing each individual’s personal and intimate data. Many may wonder how their clinical data is protected, who safeguards it, and more. It is also important to consider the effects on public health and how this may influence food culturally, politically, and religiously.
• Issues with results: Lab data may not always be correct, and pre-test information is necessary for people to truly understand their results.
• Costs: Nutrition research can be costly, and it takes a lot of time to determine the relationship between individual genes and nutrition and vice versa.

Practical applications of nutrigenomics

Nutrigenomics may help in real-life situations, such as people using at-home genetic testing kits to understand their genes, what diet maximizes their overall health, and what can prevent diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

People may also use it to create a food diary to help understand the overall picture of their nutritional needs.

Nutrigenomics can also help scientists understand animal DNA and genes and improve how animals are fed in preparation for human consumption.

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Summary

Nutrigenomics can help people understand how the body responds to food and nutrition and how our genes respond to diet.

In practical terms, studying nutrigenomics may one day help people understand what diseases and conditions they can prevent by understanding how their bodies and genes react to their diet.