How Genetics Will Define Our Future Diets 👨🏻🔬 (Drew's Digest #02)
What do you think of when I mention the words ‘genetics’ or ‘DNA’?
Do you conjure up an image of a spiralling ladder inside the nucleus of a cell? Perhaps you think of something to do with a family or gene line? Or even the genetic modification of plants and animals?
Like nutrition, genetics is a relatively new field of science, and in a lot of ways they share a similar history. Beginning from physical observations and experiments on the macro scale to the development of chemical analysis and isolation techniques on the micro scale.
Over the last 50+ years, knowledge in both fields has advanced to a point where they will inevitably be forever entwined.
Genetics is such an awesome topic because it can explain so much about who we are and how we function. It wasn’t until 2003 - when the human genome was completely mapped - that we could even begin to understand the complex mechanisms that make us all unique. That’s only 15 years ago! Imagine the depth of knowledge that will come to light over the next decade or 2.
Acceptance of gene science
The fact that this area of science is still emerging from its infancy, can often be met with criticism and hesitation from newcomers and laypeople. Genetic testing, in particular, is a hotbed for discussion, and many people are wary and cautious to the notion that, once obtained, their genetic identity or profile may be used for exploitative purposes.
Indeed, there is a good reason to be sceptical and err on the side of caution in a time of increasing governmental power, but at what expense?
Genetic markers for all sorts of diseases are being discovered every other day and we are now able to harness this knowledge and treat patients accordingly. Literally, as I write this, the evening news just reported on the discovery of 15 new genes linked to a greater risk of breast cancer. Now, this is great for science, but are women going to avoid getting tested because of preconceived fears or anxiety of genetic misuse?
Application to our diet
What genetics has done for cancer, it is now doing for nutrition and metabolism. Like cancer-associated genes, there are of course food and nutrient-related genes. Put simply, each of these genes is made up of a set of nucleotides - which can vary between individual.
These variations are called ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’ (SNPs, pronounced as “snips” ✂️) and can affect how the body interacts with a given nutrient. Some variations may impact things like digestion, absorption or weight management.
Intervention strategies to combat these variations are targeted specifically at the gene-diet SNPs of interest, and often include restriction of energy or particular nutrients. As the science evolves and more people become aware of their own genetic coding, personalised and individualised diets will no-doubt be the future for diet and meal management.
Thank you so much if you got this far. I truly appreciate you taking the time to digest some of my content 😁
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I plan on purchasing a genetic test from one of the ancestry companies in the near future at the same time as a loved one. Perhaps I am just not creative enough, but I can't think of any particular threat posed by my genetic sequence being recorded I fear. Walking past an 8 year-old clone of myself, albeit creepy, would be fairly flattering in a way.
Hi thisismework,
I think what a lot of people fear isn't so much finding they've been cloned (White Girls... anyone?) but that using their genome aspects of their past or future may be compromised. Imagine if everyones information went public and (all hypothetical here) it turned out you were related to a known criminal... or your parents weren't your real parents... or everyone now knows you carry a high risk of (or many repeats for) Parkinsons and now no one will date you because they know any kids you have will probably get the disease... or you've a hereditary hypercholesterinaemia and your job wont invest in educating you because it's too high risk you'll just drop dead.
It's a little bit out there or GATACA style, but these are the eventualities that some people fear!
Also just a side note... be careful which company you opt to go with for those genetic test kits! Some are quite dodgy (hear a report of a bloke who sent in dog DNA and recieved a full report back... no one had noticed it wasn't human DNA and apparently the dog was vagualy related to both Gehnsis Kahn (who isn't) and Shakespear!
Haha that is a valid point. There are a lot of concerns about how genetic data could be used in the future and that is why some choose to shy away and not have any testing done - and I understand their reasoning.
I think the field of 'personalized health' in the form of genetic and environmental specific diets, disease prevention strategies and treatment programmes is going to be a huge field in the future. The problem arises when theoretical improvements are inefficient to implement. A good example is the above breast cancer screening. To (fairly) impiment our new knowledge we'd have to test the genotype of all 15 regions in all the women in our population (already an expensive feat) and then (not accounting for false negatives and false positives) calculate the risk of that women developing breast cancer at a specific age. After this we can have the discussion with the women (imagine if at this point she simply turns around and says 'not interested' or worse yet, doesn't show up to the appointment) and hope to god she listens and heeds our medical advice...
I think there's a huge future for personalised healthcare, but I also think we need to be smarted about how we approach it because it's far too easy to spend a lot of time and effort but make no impact at the end of the day.
All fantastic points to consider. It would be a huge undertaking with a potentially tiny ROI. Still, it's an interesting space to watch. You clearly know plenty more about the topic and I appreciate your comments and input ✌🏼