Skinny GENES

By Vanessa Billingsley, Fountain of You Wellness Writer

This season’s craze has little to do with the perfect pair of Dolce and Gabbana skinny jeans—accept that it just may help us squeeze into them. It is called nutrigenomics, a new area of scientific study that proves what we put in our mouths can change the expression of our genes! Scientists are looking to our genes for answers to questions like “Why are we experiencing such a huge upswing in insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity in the United States?” and “Why is it that we are having such a difficult time turning it around despite the many new weight loss products on the market?” What does this search for answers mean for you and me? It means finding out that in many cases we can persuade the genes we were born with to behave the way we want them to. Like Dr. Dean Ornish, founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF says, “Your genes are not your fate!”

The food and supplements we ingest and the lifestyles we live effect the signaling which occurs within our cells. Simply put, our digested food is translated by enzymes (kinases) into dietary signals which are then “read” by our DNA. Diseases like insulin resistance, diabetes, leptin resistance, obesity, heart disease, and even some cancers may be the result of faulty signaling between these enzymes and our genes. Why the malfunction? The answer lies in America’s obsession for processed, synthetic foods and the wide-spread state of psychological stress we have come accept as normal! Poor food choices and excess stress result in inferior physiological communication within our bodies. As a result we experience up-regulation (turning on) of genes which encourage tumor growth, fat storage, inflammation, and many other harmful phenomena. We also experience down-regulation (turning off) of genes which were once doing a magnificent job protecting us from disease. In order for us to ensure that our genes receive the proper signals to keep us healthy and slender, we need to feed our bodies clean, whole food and minimize the stress we experience from day to day.

A 2008 study conducted at the University of Florida, College of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and published in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, revealed that rats fed a diet high in fructose became resistant to the natural appetite-suppressing hormone leptin. After being on a high fructose diet (60% pure fructose) for 6 months, they were injected with leptin and given a high fat diet. Rats in the control group (another group of rats who were fed a no fructose diet) were also injected with leptin and fed a high fat diet. The researchers report that the control group rats responded to the leptin with a decrease in caloric intake for the next 24 hours while the high fructose group did not respond at all! They simply could no longer respond to the hormonal cue to reduce their intake of food! Researchers do not fully understand the mechanisms underlying the fructose-induced leptin-resistance, but they note a reduced activation of certain genes involved. In learning the results of this study and many more like it, we can speculate that certain manufactured “foods” or ingredients may be causing our genes to function less than optimally.

For many years, knowledgeable doctors have recognized the power of nutrition and have used its principals to help their patients become well and prevent disease. The study of how nutrition effects the expression of our genes has the potential to change the face of medicine as we know it today. In the future we will be able to design diets specifically for our unique genotypes and genetic tendencies. This will truly be the ultimate personalization of medical treatment. After all, we are all unique. We should not expect the same medical treatments. In the meantime anti-aging physicians continue to embrace what we already know about nutrigenomics by teaching patients to base their diets on phytonutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats and the right carbohydrates.

The fall season is here, and Halloween is on its way. Before we invite endless bags of candy into our homes, maybe we should think about this: The typical American diet and lifestyle have literally made their mark on our genes by clouding the communication occurring within us at the cellular level. Are we encouraging changes in the expression of our children’s genes which will one day make it more difficult for them to stay healthy, slender, and strong?

If you have questions about what kinds of foods constitute a truly clean, whole diet, check out the Fountain of You website for tips, tools, ideas, and recipes: Fountainofyou.md.