Food: Nature’s cure?
Published: November 24, 2005
In addition to putting a roll around your belly, or adding a dress size … or two, researchers are learning that what you eat may influence your health in ways you never imagined.
The relationship between diet and diabetes or cardiovascular disease has been on everyone’s radar screen for many years. The emerging role of diet as a precipitating factor for cancer, or even as a means to reduce or reverse disease, brings a new perspective to the adage: you are what you eat.
New appreciation for the role of food and nutrition toward human health is an outgrowth of the Human Genome Project, which has expanded knowledge on the role of diet and genetics for metabolism and health. Nutrigenomics is the study of how nutrients and genes interact, and how genetic variations can cause people to respond differently to food nutrients. [Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating]
Researchers are learning that what we eat may turn genes “on” or “off” thereby influencing our health. A recent article in New Scientists documents animal studies showing how nutrients and supplements can change the genetics of rodents by activating or deactivating particular genes.
In the studies, an amino acid was injected into the animal, a process called methylation. This activity alters the normal way a gene works, or is expressed. In one particular instance, the genetic alteration changed the behavior of animals when subjected to stress.
While scientists have known that activation or deactivation of genes was linked to some illnesses, the trigger for the genetic change has been obscure. The discovery that food nutrients may influence genetic activity and subsequent health has narrowed the chasm between allopathic and naturopathic medical approaches.
This month, scientists from the International Agency for Cancer Research published a study in Lancet that found a 70 percent reduction in lung cancer, for individuals who possessed an inactive version of two particular genes, when they consumed cruciferous vegetables at least once a week. (see: Suaerkraut and Bird Flu).
Authorities are learning that the influence of nutrients and supplements cannot be overstated. In fact, some animal research suggests that a mother’s diet can influence the genetic expression among offspring.
“It’s quite a strong possibility that nutrients might cause DNA changes. We think diet may have a role to play as a regulator in genes,” says Professor Ian Johnson from the Institute of Food Research.
Johnson’s research focuses on a dietary link to colon cancer, hypothesizing that DNA methylation may trigger the cancer. Another intriguing association under investigation is whether methylation of folate or folic acid may play a role in development of breast or colon cancers
The discovery that nutrients and supplements can influence the activity of genes, thence health, excites many people. [Nutrient-Gene Interactions in Health and Disease]
“Genes regulate all the processes in the body, and things that change gene expression, therefore, may be linked to a number of health issues other than cancer too,” states Johnson.
Understanding the link between diet and gene expression is a monumental step in the history of medicine, said William Rice, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of myDNA.
“In the future, dietary biomarkers will serve as a guide to one’s optimal diet, in many cases significantly reducing disease risk.”
In other words, perhaps one of these days in the not so distant future we will be able to “undo” some illnesses by merely eating.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: