Smart Foods

2009-05-03T10:39:00.001-07:00

In the early 1990s when I began to research smart foods, a new book piqued my
interest titled, The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disorders, 6th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York: 2649-2680, 1989. The idea is that your metabolic type (based on chemical, electrical, and genetic tags that switch on and off) is connected to what you eat.

The notion led me to begin a reading list. This arena now is a branch of
nutritional epigenetics. Within human ecology, it compares the latest research
in nutritional genomics/epigenetics to how smart foods (foods tailored to your genetic signature) influence risk of chronic disease. What you eat shows up in your genetic signature.

If you want to measure risk by DNA, you need to test a person's entire genome because there may be many genes regulating risk. Epigenetics looks at how to switch gene 'tags' on or off depending upon the foods, nutrients, lifestyles, habits, and attitudes as well as the environments a person lives in over a lifetime.

The longer science studies the entire genome (rather than the specific SNPs for certain chronic diseases) the more information will be forthcoming on how food and
lifestyle influence your health based on the genes you inherited.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “Your lifestyle, the food you eat, and where you live and work can all affect how you respond to medicines. But another key factor is your DNA, which contains your genes.

Scientists are trying to figure out how the make-up of your DNA can contribute
to the way you respond to medicines, including pain-killers with codeine like
Tylenol®#3, antidepressants like Prozac®, and many blood pressure and asthma
medicines.

Scientific discoveries made through this research may provide information to guide doctors in prescribing the right amount of the right medicine (or foods, lifestyles, and supplements) for you. According to the National Institutes of Health , the institute "aims to improve the health of all Americans through medical research that solves mysteries about how the human body normally works—and how and why it doesn’t work, when disease occurs. One goal of this research is to help improve the good effects of medicines while preventing bad reactions.”

How do your genes respond to what you eat?
Are you getting tired of the slogan "smart foods for intelligent people?" How many diet-by-DNA book titles are there? Books on smarter foods? Tailored menus? Extracts of plants? DNA tests for ancestry? Ancestry and eating? According to Dr. Fredric D. Abramson, Ph.D, S.M., President and CEO of AlphaGenics, Inc., "Genes are distributed, function, and work in such ways that nearly every reasonable diet could work well in about six percent of the population."

There is a strong connection between nutrition and genotype, especially in regards to your cardiovascular and central nervous system health. So you need to tailor foods
intelligently to your genetic expression. The media buzz about ‘intelligent’
foods or ‘smart’ foods really means eating clean, safe, whole foods based on
what your individual genes need to thrive. Not all your genes would be tested.

Or instead of a test, you could go by your body measurements, as outlined in naturopathic doctor, Peter D'Adamo's book, the Genotype Diet. If you're interested in some free food information research, you might start at Food Resource, an online source of science-based and business savvy information for the food industry at Oregon State University.

What happens when diet books for your condition aren’t working for you? Maybe salt
restriction isn’t working but exercise is for your condition. How do your genes
respond to nutrition and nourishment? Are your genes intelligent, conscious, and
communicating with you about their nutritional needs? If they are, so are the foods you eat. Your genes interact and collaborate as a team.

The language of communication is written in the human genome, in your individual genetic signature—in your DNA, in particular SNPs, and in all your genes and cellular
material. Even your blood type is expressed in all the cells of your body. How does all this information signal you about what ‘smart’ foods and nutraceuticals to choose in order to help prevent or delay chronic disease for which your genes may put you at risk?

Nutritional genomics and epigenetics are buzz words in the news. Tiny tags switch good genes on and bad genes off based on what you eat or the supplements you take,
according to documentaries on resveratrol and green tea extract (acting as metholizers).

Testing DNA for ancestry and DNA-driven nutrition also bridge gaps in regard to customizing smarter foods to your genotype. Phenomics is about customized healthcare and medicine tailored to your genetic profile. Pharmacogenomics is about tailoring your medicine dosages to your genetic profile, but not all your genes are tested. The nutrition angle remains to ask the question: how smart do you want your food to be? And what should you know about tailoring your food to your genes or metabolic body type? We all eat on the molecular level, the chemical level, and yes, the atomic level.

Resveratrol is big news. Many people take resveratrol capsules and decaffeinated
green tea capsules daily. The Genotype Diet book also mentions resveratrol. Check
out some of the reviews on resveratrol and decide for yourself which product meets your requirements for standardization.

Look for validation. When you read a review of resveratrol or any other supplement, ask whether it is an objective review or is the review made by someone selling a product or trying to get you to try a product for which you'll later be billed in case you forget to cancel? Be aware of whether you have control over what you want to buy. And read about how a product has been validated. Check it all out.

nutrigenomics-journalism

Smart Foods