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cleaneating.com 41
ask dr. jonny
eating seven meals a day at fast-food
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you had the BRCA mutation, it
might be time to change your diet!)
But the truth is, most people have
something they can improve upon
in their diet or lifestyle.
Another thing to remember about
genetic testing is that the tests you
want for diet and exercise are not
the widely advertised commercial
tests that promise to connect you
with your long-lost relatives. Those
tests are useless for determiningwhat you should eat or how you
should exercise, despite marketing
claims to the contrary. To get info
that you can actually use, you’ll have
to go to a much more extensive (and
expensive) test like those provided
by Pathway Genomics in the US or
Youtrients in Canada.
Pathway Genomics offers tests
that look for patterns of genes that
make it more (or less) likely that
you will do well on a particular
HDWLQJSODQ 5HPHPEHUWKHāUVWcaveat: We’re talking predictions,
possibilities, likelihoods and
percentages, not certainties!)
Pathway developed algorithms,
for example, based on genetic traits
in over 1,100 marathon runners to
develop their “marathon runner”
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They also have a FIT IQ test, which
looks at genetic patterns that may
predispose you to being better (or
worse) at processing sugar and/or
fat. A typical report might tell youthat you are a fast metabolizer
of caffeine (the CYP1A2 gene
determines this), whether or not
you have lactose intolerance and
whether you should focus on
endurance training more than
weight training.
All this sounds great, but be
cautioned: Some of the suggested
actions are pretty vague and not
much different than you’d get from
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example: There’s a genetic variantEHWWHURQRWKHUGLHWV2QFHJHQHWLFV
were factored in, the results began
to make more sense.
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gene has a lot to do with how your
body handles dietary fat. People with
a certain variant of this gene are
able to extract every bit of energy
and nutrition from fat, their bodies
have all the pathways in place to
optimally break down fat and their
enzymes are functioning well, so
when these folks eat fat, all is right
with the world. Folks with a different
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high-fat diets. Knowing this, along
with other genetic markers, might
help you decide if you are a good
candidate for a keto (high-fat) diet,
and these variants may help explain
why some people thrive on such
diets while others don’t.
Similarly, variants in the HLA-
DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 genes increase
the risk of developing celiac disease.
But increasing the risk of something
happening is not the same as making
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mutation raises a woman’s risk for
breast cancer from about 12% to
about 70%, but it doesn’t raise it to
100%! The danger with genetic
testing is thinking that your DNA
determines everything. It doesn’t.
What you do still matters a lot.
To complicate things further,
knowing you have a particular gene
may not even make much of a
difference in your behavior or your
diet, especially if you’re already
doing all the right stuff. Suppose you
are a person who exercises daily and
eats an extraordinarily healthy diet
with tons of cruciferous vegetables
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to have anticancer activity. Then
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“bad” gene (like the mutation of the
BRCA gene that Angelina Jolie had).
I mean, really, besides more vigilant
screening, what are you going to
GRGLIIHUHQWO\" 2IFRXUVHLI\RXÚUH“THE DANGER WITH GENETIC TESTING IS THINKING
THAT YOUR DNA DETERMINES EVERYTHING. IT
DOESN’T. WHAT YOU DO STILL MATTERS A LOT.”Knowing certain
genetic markers
might help you
decide if you are a
good candidate for a
keto (high-fat) diet
and may help explain
why some people
thrive on such diets
while others don’t.