DNA and Diet

DNA and Diet

Title of Topic:            DNA and Diet

Claim of Topic:           Choosing foods appropriate to our genetic makeup can minimize our risk of disease and maximize the ability to perform at our optimal genetic potential.

Discussion of Topic: Genes contain encoded information that is translated into the proteins that perform the activities essential to life. Each of us has the same set of genes but each gene can have slight variations. These genetic variations can affect the protein encoded in each gene, resulting in:

  • slightly different nutrient requirements between individuals;
  • different susceptibilities to disease; and
  • different influences of environmental factors on our genes and their proteins.

Food is one of many environmental factors that can influence our genes. Matching food choices to our genes makes sense in order to minimize risk of disease and optimize our unique genetic potential. There is not a DNA diet in the way there’s a South Beach or Atkins diet. However, there is such a diet in the sense that each of us has foods that match our particular gene variations better than others. How close we come to that ideal affects how well we function. Certain genes interact with bioactive components in the foods we eat. For example, our gene variants may allow us to fully digest most plant proteins, but not wheat protein, or cause us to require a higher than normal level of certain nutrients. Our genes may make us susceptible to inflammatory disorders, but our choice of a diet high in certain food components can decrease that risk. In each case, the right foods in the right amounts for our genes circumvents negative health outcomes.

The study of how genes determine our nutritional requirements and how food components interact with our genes and influence outcomes is called nutritional genomics (nutrigenomics). The technology exists for testing which gene variants we have and, for some diet-related genes, that information can be translated into smart food choices. Considerable research is needed, though, before all of the diet-related genes are identified and matched to appropriate food choices and diets tailored to each individual’s particular gene variants can be developed.

Bottom Line: Genetic makeup (genotype) will increasingly direct dietary and other lifestyle interventions. Although the research at present is limited compared to what the coming decades will bring, it’s clear that the time is now for dietetics professionals to begin moving in this direction and to build the knowledge base that will be needed for the era ahead.

Opportunities for Dietetics Professionals: The dietetics profession is a natural foundation upon which to develop expertise as a nutrigenomics practitioner. A wide variety of practitioners will be needed: researchers, food developers, clinicians, educators, lifestyle coaches, sales and marketing professionals, public health practitioners and policy development specialists.

Resources/References:  

1. Kauwell GPA. Emerging concepts in nutrigenomics: a preview of what is to come. Nutr Clin Prac. 2005;20:75-87

2. DeBusk RM, Fogarty CP, Ordovas JM, Kornman KS. Nutritional genomics in practice: where do we begin? J Am Diet Assoc. 2005;105:589-599.

3. Stover PJ. Influence of human genetic variation on nutritional requirements. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006;83:436S-442S.

Written by Ruth DeBusk, PhD, RD of the Nutrition in Complementary Care dietetic practice group (March 2006).