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Three public health genomics courses are being offered in the 2007 Public Health Institute. Guest blogger, Petrona Lee, is attending the course and provides some reflections on what she finds interesting and important. Today's entry is on the nutrigenetic testing.
Nutrigenetics is one of the upcoming genomic fad. While the underlining theory behind prescribing a diet based on one’s genomic profile has some credible genomic principles. Reducing the science to a simple diet based on the gene responsible for a disease ignores too many genetic and genomic facts.
One of the main facts that does not substantiate a diet for a disease is that for so many diseases, there are multiple genes. Which gene will the diet be directed at? What happens when several environmental factors assault the individual? Will the individual recognize the relevant environmental factors in time to adjust the diet? How frequently will one need to adjust the diet to accommodate environmental changes? I understand that it is quite easy to entice someone to buy into nutrigenetics testing. We are all striving for long life and perfect health without much fussing and little interference to important things that we have to do. What would be less satisfying as eating for fitness? We could extrapolate to where an individual receive your pre-programmed diet soon after birth. It would then require little thinking from day to day. One would robot-like reach into the cupboard for some freeze dried meal or perhaps have it condensed into pills that one just pops two or three times per day.
Besides being awfully boring, I would think it would be outdated repeatedly, either by other gene expressions, new environmental exposure or synergistic effect from other diseases and stress.
Petrona Lee