Nutrition, Genes and Health.If you feed in a balanced and appropriate or else you exceed not properly combine nutrients, this may affect nutritional status and will be reflected in the incidence of various diseases.With the application of molecular biology techniques and the success of the Human Genome Project to date they have identified at least 10,000 human genes that cause diseases.Some diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer have a genetic or hereditary component (a term often used as a synonym) and may accelerate or delay its onset by environmental factors, where nutrition and lifestyle play a role.Phenotypic differences in human health and disease are mainly due to this diversity and individual own genetics all members of the species, and also so important for different environmental experiences of each. And this individual genetic variability is a critical determinant of the different nutritional requirements.Thus using different molecular techniques has enabled the identification of markers of different type (length polymorphisms of restriction fragments, microsatellite markers, single nucleotide polymorphisms), they are frequently used for the development of chromosome mapping, and which will allow select individuals susceptible to specific diets.The food industry has the opportunity to use bioactive food components to improve health and prevent disease taking into account the genetic constitution of the consumers, this new era of molecular nutrition, gene - nutrient interactions, it can grow in different directions However, two essential. On the one hand the study of the influence of nutrients on gene expression (nutrigenomics) and another to know the influence of genetic variations in the organism response to nutrients (nutrigenomics).Nutrigenomics set as main objective to provide the knowledge to make a diagnosis and establish a nutritional treatment based on individual genotype by two main branches: nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics.Let's give some examples to better understand this: nutrigenomics studies the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the genetic expression of oxidation and energy use. And to include these fatty acids in the diet directly or indirectly regulate the expression of genetic information. While nutrigenetics offers the ability to customize nutrition according to the genetic makeup of consumers, the example would be: individuals with different values of serum cholesterol and blood pressure genetic variations, even with standard diet.These individual variations are given as polymorphisms, defined as the difference in DNA sequence in individuals, which can determine the state of health and presented in more than 1% of the population.The nutrient intake recommendations intended to meet the needs of 95% of the healthy population; however for conducting individualized recommendations; and it increases the complexity of information required subgroups with different genetic profiles and their interactions with diets. These results are currently available on some genes and only few nutrients.The importance of this research is that open the way to improve for example the treatment of obesity according to their genetic profile, it has been shown that alteration of a particular gene (beta-2 adrenergic receptor) makes the person suffering such alteration fattening if you do not exercise regularly. If we identify this as a specific genetic defect in obese patients, we emphasize in a treatment doing exercise over limiting fats, since the main cause of their obesity would be the lack of exercise.And also with regard to the metabolism of various nutrients, the genetic basis makes each person differently metabolize proteins, carbohydrates and fats; it has been shown that certain people suffer mutation in the PPAR gene should limit fat intake, in this way preferential change other habits to treat their obesity more effectively. In this way we will know in advance what is the best treatment strategy (very low calorie diet, diet low in fat or low-carbohydrate diet) and what is the best combination (diet + exercise, diet + medication).It is estimated that more than 30% of the cases have a genetic basis of obesity. Also in cases of borderline overweight, a large majority would fall within polymorphisms called energy saving, that is, those profiles that somehow the calories the advantage more or put another way that your metabolism is better suited for times of It lacked in order to store the energy as fat.You have to individualize each case, the analysis of 3 drops of blood are deposited in a specific card to the laboratory to identify specific genes polymorphisms analyzed (INSIG2: In case of people with family overweight, MC4R, ADRB2: when weight is increased easily with free carbohydrate diets and respond poorly to physical sports, APOAV activity: when it responds well to the low-fat diet, being associated with increased cardiovascular risk, GNB3).As it is not at all accessible to these tests yet in commercial laboratories, nutritionists continue to work with the assessment of clinical-nutritional history, covering family history of diet, taking supplements or supplements, food intolerances and allergies and personal history, and the anthropometric assessment as weight, height,% body fat, waist circumference or abdominal% weight / height, lean mass, fat mass, ideal weight, etc. In short, the ABCD Nutrition.
