Genomic Eating

February 2, 2007

One reason it has been such good news to discover the extraordinary complexity of our genetic inheritance is that it frees us to accept the more evidently causal elements without feeling we have submitted to a reductionist model of human nature. While these elements have been crucial to the development of pharmacogenomics, they are also now being applied to our eating habits – in “nutrigenomics.” So at least we read in the latest Technology Review, in an article about and interview with Jose Ordovas:

If you knew that you were especially susceptible to heart disease when you gained weight, would it increase your motivation to diet? How much would you be willing to pay to find out if you are one of the lucky people who can eat as much fat as you want and not have an increased risk of heart disease? Such tests are the goal of nutrigenomics, which seeks to identify the links between nutrition and disease based on an individual’s genome (See “Your Genomic Diet”, August 2005).

While the field is still too young to offer personal dietary advice for the average consumer, research has uncovered links among genes, diet, and heart disease. Jose Ordovas, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at Tufts University, has spent years studying the link between metabolism of dietary fats and risk of cardiovascular disease. After analyzing data from the Framingham Heart Study, a large-scale study that has traced the health of some 5,000 people since 1948, his team has found that certain genetic variants can protect people from diet-induced cardiovascular disease–or put them at increased risk.