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. Genetic testing analyses your DNA to reveal variations in your genes that may cause illness or illness. Nutrigenomic tests are specific genetic tests that demonstrate a person’s individual nutritional needs
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The test requires a cheek swab, which is sent to a laboratory that examines about 70 or more specific genes. Nutrigenomics is a new and evolving science that studies the interaction between the nutrients in our food and the genes in our bodies. Nutrients in foods, such as proteins and vitamins, provide our bodies with the energy we need to live. Genes are the basic biological substances that provide instructions for building and maintaining our bodies
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Nutrigenomics studies how nutrients and genes interact, where our genes influence, how our bodies use nutrients, and where nutrients influence how genes work. Korthals advises us to think more broadly, not only about foods but also about the potential uses of nutrigenomics to broaden the horizons of these other aspects and functions of food. As a result, nutritional research shifted from epidemiology and physiology to molecular biology and genetics, and nutrigenomics was born. On the question of personalized nutrition and whether nutrigenomics can contribute to sustainable individual diet and lifestyle changes, the multi-center Food4Me study recently financed by the EU tried to
to answer some of these questions.
Different ways and cultures of eating (or “food styles”) are assessed, particularly with regard to their ethical status and their relationship to the development of nutrigenomics. Given the increasing burden of diet-related noncommunicable diseases worldwide, nutrigenomics could help develop more sustainable approaches to promote dietary change at population level, although the lack of experimental studies involving humans remains an obstacle to translating research findings into policy and practice. The hypothetical potential of nutrigenomics to transform healthcare is so great that a white paper from the UK Department of Health in 2003 predicted that as knowledge of genetics increases, “treatment, lifestyle advice and monitoring for disease prevention could then be suitably tailored to each individual. The New Zealand model of Nutrigenomics provides an approach to personalized, genotype-based nutrition that has the potential to offer food and personalized advice that the
benefit the health of individuals or the population.
While his observations support the idea that nutrigenomics can be configured to support collective health and wellbeing — hence applications of nutrigenomics in public health — he would also like the criticism to go further. The literature search on the topic of “nutrigenomics” using various databases comes to the conclusion that there is great hope and need for nutrigenomics in India. Third, the assessment of the effects of nutrigenomics mentioned above by Bouwman and van Woerkum must be measured in longitudinal studies to determine whether there is a benefit for the general public. In fact, a third of the newspaper articles in a study by Bubela and Taylor (200) referred to nutrigenomics companies, while less than
7% referred to published research results
Nutrigenomics, which studies the interaction between diet and disease development based on a person’s genetic profile, would give scientific validity to such approaches. Nutrigenomic tests involve evaluating the individual SNPs associated with common chronic diseases that are known to interact with specific foods or nutrients in the variations investigated. 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. First, the potential of nutrigenomics for public health interventions versus health promotion must be considered, as
they lead to different applications of science.
References:
- How to Use Nutrigenomics Testing to Personalize Your Patients Optimal Diet
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602567/