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Gabriel Johnson

Gustavo Ibarra

Health 1010

March 1 2017

Nutrigenetics

In the upcoming world, especially in America we see an epidemic of health problems,

spanning from a wide variety of health issues. Some of those health issues include obesity which

causes hypertension, type 2 diabetes cause by poor dietary choices, heart disease, respiratory

problems, and many other diseases. With regards to all of these issues, while it may be your

choice that you have these issues, by eating too much or not eating what you should, what health

defects would we pass on to our next of kin? What can food do to your DNA? What effect can

our DNA have on what we eat in the first place? These are the questions nutrigenetics aims to

answer.

A case study on the Genetics of Obesity: The Rise of Nutrigenetics, Asian Adipocytes

and Strategy Towards Preventing Obesity said

The emergence of nutritional genomics which combines multiple elements such as health,

diet, and genomics should be the driving force of future nutritional research to provide clear

understanding on how obesity develops from the perspective of molecular nutrition to the

prevention of disease.

This tells us that if we want to know more about obesity, such as the minute causes that

differ in every individual we must take a look at how diet and our genome are related. We must

know about what our DNA does to cope with certain types of food, and how certain types of
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food can influence how our bodies behave. We already know that eating unhealthy and having an

unhealthy lifestyle can lead to all of the diseases stated above, and we already know that having a

healthy lifestyle can have the opposite effect, but what about the things we cant control?

From research, we can see that obesity is most common in countries that have a more

diverse background. In a study, done by a few researchers on nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics,

they could see that when they looked at Indians, Asian Indians, Chinese, and Malays, they saw

Asian Indians where at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, the rate of myocardial infarction

was around 3 times more than the Chinese. They saw how obesity was more common among the

Malays they said However, the pattern of fat distribution is more peripheral. In contrast, Asian

Indians have a larger waist circumference. This results in elevated insulin resistance, which is

highest in Asian Indians, followed by Malays and Chinese(j Neutrigenet nutrigenomics).

NTNU researchers Ingerid Arbo and Hans-Richard Brattbakk have fed slightly

overweight people different diets, and studied the effect of this on gene expression. Gene

expression refers to the process where information from a gene's DNA sequence is translated into

a substance, like a protein, that is used in a cell's structure or function. This research will go on

to shape what we know is happening in the human body. Some of their findings include how

carbohydrates at 65% which is around average for a Norwegian diet and what this does is

make the cells work faster or harder which isnt a good thing. This can cause many diseases such

as cardiovascular disease, some cancers, dementia, and type 2 diabetes -- all the major lifestyle-

related diseases.
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How can we prevent these diseases from showing themselves? Well, first we need to ask

our genes what kinds of foods they want or need. one-third protein, one-third fat and one-third

carbohydrates. That's what recent genetic research from the Norwegian University of Science

and Technology (NTNU) shows is the best recipe to limit your risk of most lifestyle-related

diseases. The researchers conducted two studies; found at

(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919073845.htm)

The first was to determine what type of research methods they would use to answer the

questions they had. In the pilot study (28 days) five obese men ate real food, while in the second

study, 32 slightly overweight men and women (mainly students) ate specially made powdered

food.

Participants in the latter study were randomly assigned to go six days on a diet with 65

percent of calories from carbohydrates, with the rest of the calories from protein (15 percent) and

fat (20 percent), then a week with no diet. Then came the six days on a diet with half the carbs

and twice as much protein and fat as in the first diet. There were blood tests before and after each

dieting period.

While diet studies are often criticized, they considered many things such as omega3 and

omega6 intake exactly what foods they were eating. But while the diet was an important part

presenting a lot of problems the researchers needed to find what was happening to the genes.

What they looked at was how the genes where working. Where they working as normal or where

they working more than they should. They would look to see what kinds of things the cells where

doing and if the genes as a group were working more than they should (causing inflammation).

"Genes that are involved in type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease and

some forms of cancer respond to diet, and are up-regulated, or activated, by a carbohydrate-rich
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diet," says Johansen. Meaning that they inflammation or overactive cells will respond to the diet

with more carbohydrates and calm down.

Johansen is not a cancer researcher, and is not claiming that it is possible to eliminate

your risk of a cancer diagnosis by eating. But she thinks it is worth noting that the genes that we

associate with disease risk can be influenced by diet. With all the research and breakthroughs on

this topic we need to realize that this is just the beginning. We need to do far more research into

how diet can affect the genes in our cells and how we can use our diet to change how our bodies

cope with diseases.

The final step she suggests we do is make basic decisions on diet. You do not have to

measure every little thing you eat but she wants you to be aware that you will affect your body

with what you eat. Pick foods that you may not have originally planned. Take small steps to

ensure that you can become healthier, and think about what you put in your body. So instead of

picking a sugary serial pick something healthier like yogurt with fruit. She explains that if you

put some effort into what you eat you will see a major improvement. If you cut down on boiled

root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, and replace the white bread with a few whole meal

slices, such as rye bread, or bake your own crispbread, you will reduce the amount of bad

carbohydrates in your diet quite significantly. Furthermore, remember to eat protein and fat at

every meal, including breakfast!".

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Work cited

"GENETICS OF OBESITY: THE RISE OF NUTRIGENETICS, ASIAN ADIPOCYTES AND

STRATEGY TOWARDS PREVENTING OBESITY." Researcher Gate. N.p., Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Mar.

2017.

Michael Fenech - Ahmed El-Sohemy - Leah Cahill - Lynnette R.Ferguson - Tapaeru-Ariki C.French - E.
ShyongTai - John Milner - Woon-Puay Koh - Lin Xie - Michelle Zucker - Michael Buckley - Leah Cosgrove
- Trevor Lockett - Kim Y.C.Fung - Richard Head
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121546/#sec1_5title

"Feed Your Genes." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.