Originally published October 24 2005
Nutritionists foresee a future of DNA-based dietary advice
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Raymond Rodriguez, director of the National Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics at the University of California, Davis, talks about the future of nutrition and how it may improve with the advance of nutrigenomics.
As a geneticist, she wondered if she could do better.
So earlier this year, she had her DNA tested by a company that gives personalized nutrition advice based on genetics.
The results indicated she needed more folate.
So DeBusk doubled her minimum amount of folate, a B vitamin found in leafy greens and citrus.
That's the way it's supposed to work in nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics.
"Every time we go to the supermarket we're using educated guesses about what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat," says Raymond Rodriguez, director of the National Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics at the University of California, Davis.
Most of the research targets heart disease and cancer, and scientists may be ready to deliver personalized diet recommendations in those areas within five years, said Jose Ordovas, director of the nutrition and genomics laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston.
You can walk into some pharmacies or grocery stores right now and pay $99 for a DNA test kit that will get you personalized diet advice for heart health, bone health, or any of three other areas.
Sciona customers collect their DNA with a cheek swab, complete a diet and lifestyle questionnaire and send it all in for analysis.
A basic approach Testing focuses on 19 genes, and the company is studying others, said Rosalynn Gill-Garrison, chief scientific officer and a company founder.
Gill-Garrison said studies show that people with a certain version of a gene called MTHFR tend to have high blood levels of a substance called homocysteine, which has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
DeBusk, who said she has no financial ties to any of the companies, figures the time for DNA-based diet advice has come.
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