Nutrigenomics therefore originally referred to the study of the effects of nutrients on the expression of an individual’s genetic makeup. More recently, this definition has been expanded to include dietary factors that protect the genome from damage. Nutrigenomics, or nutritional genomics, is the study of how genes and diet interact, says Peart. Variants (differences) in your genes predict how your body is likely to respond to specific nutrients
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The term nutritional genomics is an umbrella term that includes several sub-categories such as nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, and nutritional epigenetics. Nutrigenomics can help with personalized health and nutrition intake by evaluating individuals and determining specific dietary needs. Much remains to be discovered and clarified in bringing together the science of bioinformatics, nutrition, epidemiology, molecular biology, and genomics, but future nutrigenomics research will undoubtedly provide further fascinating insights into both nutritional science and the human genome. A fundamental assumption of nutrigenomics is that multigenic traits can be altered by a combination of nutritional and other environmental factors
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In summary, nutritional genomics will be the driving force of future nutrition research. It has the potential to change the prevention and treatment of nutritional diseases and have significant effects on public health. Nutritional genomics, also known as nutrigenomics, is a science that studies the connection between the human genome, human nutrition, and health. Before genomic approaches can become an acceptable method for developing foods or dietary recommendations, numerous questions must be clarified. From a genetic perspective, there is still a lot of work to be done even with these relatively simple diseases, but there is excellent evidence that the concept works
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Most studies on nutritional genomics have analyzed interactions between genes and diet without taking into account the gender perspective. The New Zealand model of Nutrigenomics provides an approach to personalized, genotype-based nutrition that has the potential to provide food and personalized advice that benefits individual or population health. Dietary genomics is a rapidly evolving area of research with tremendous potential to produce results that could change the way dietary guidelines and personal recommendations are set and implemented in the future. The hypothetical potential of nutrigenomics to transform healthcare is so great that a 2003 UK Department of Health white paper predicted that as knowledge of genetics increases, “treatments, lifestyle advice, and monitoring to prevent disease could then be tailored to
each individual.
In nutritional genomics, one example of a gene with SNP codes is that for the enzyme methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR).