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The nutrition myth
buster Jonny Bowden
weighs in on whether
there is any truth to
the concept of eating
for your DNA.
Eating for your DNA is an idea with
tremendous potential. But don’t
rush off and do a happy dance in the
end zone – at least not just yet.
Using DNA testing for the purpose
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program is still a very new concept
and has a number of limitations you
should be aware of.
Let’s start with expectations.
Genes are, contrary to popular
opinion, generally very malleable,
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the cards you’ve been dealt in a
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important, but there wouldn’t be
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with was less important than the
cards themselves.
Whether or not a gene is
expressed — i.e., whether or
not it actually does something
you can observe and measure —
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environment, diet, toxic exposure
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(Bears are genetically programmed
to hibernate, but if the climate is
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disciplines of science have been
developed that study exactly how
nutrition and environment impact
our genes (nutrigenomics for the
former, epigenetics for the latter).
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genes can suggest that a person
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diet than another. A recent study
provides an example: Researchers
put people on a variety of weight-
loss regimens. As is often the case,
the results were all over the map,
with some people losing weight
and some people, well, not. But
when the researchers plugged in
a genetic test, some distinct
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genetic types did better on some
diets, while other genetic types didShould
I Eat
for My
DNA?