The impact of diet on he alth cannot be overestimated. The functioning of the body, its good condition and the risk of disease are very much dependent on the diet. It turns out that diet influences the epigenome - a set of substances specific to each organism that have the ability to attach to genes and influence their activity. Moreover, the latest scientific reports indicate that diet influences directly the sequence of DNA. As science develops, it turns out that the saying "You are what you eat" takes on more and more literal meaning.

With the advancement of medicine and nutritional science, more and more is being said about theeffect of diet on he alth . The quality and nutritional value of eaten food affects metabolic processes, hormone secretion, blood composition, the structure of membranes and other cellular elements, and bone density. In fact, the overall he alth of the body is very much dependent on diet. This is due to, inter alia, from the cyclical process of dying of body-building cells and the constant emergence of new ones, for which proper nutrients are necessary. Increasing scientific experience shows that diet can reduce the risk of many diseases, even when someone has a genetic burden. The question is how deeply the diet can interfere with the structure of the human body. The relationship between food and genes can be very close.

Dependence of the epigenome on diet

What we eat translates into changes in the reading of genetic material and into the sequence of genes.

Genetic material and products produced on the basis of its "reading" are not constant and unchanged throughout life. They are influenced by many factors, and one of the most important is the diet, which modifies theepigenome . An epigenome is made up of various chemicals and proteins that have the ability to attach to DNA and modulate its activity by turning genes on and off. Thus, they influence the production or inhibition of the production of individual proteins in cells. Epigenomics are called markers. They do not change the DNA sequence, but they do affect the way the information in the gene is read. Markers can be passed from cell to cell,duplicate and be inherited by successive generations. The epigenome can be strongly influenced through diet. Almost all cell genes are dependent on nutrients supplied by food, as confirmed by studies on yeast - very simple organisms, but with cellular mechanisms similar to humans. An experiment by Markus Ralser, a biochemist at the University of Cambridge, showed that nutrients released from food changed gene function and protein production. In classical terms, genes control the way nutrients from the diet are used to build larger particles. It turns out that the opposite may be true - cellular metabolism, the availability of nutrients, and the way they are broken down affect gene activity.

Dietary He alth Effects: DNA Sequence

The latest scientific reports show that the influence of diet is even stronger. Not only does it alter the epigenome and affect how genetic material is 'read', it can permanently alter the sequence of DNA. Dr. Steven Kelly and his PhD student Emily A. Seward from the Oxford's Department of Plant Sciences conducted an experiment on two types of parasitic microorganisms - bacteriaMollicutesand eukaryotesKinetoplastida,which infect various species of plants and animals, and thus feed on completely different ingredients. At the same time, they have a common ancestor, so their genetic material is similar.

How is genetic material encoded?

The DNA chain is made up of various elements, and the most important in this experiment are the nitrogenous bases - adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. Depending on the order of the nitrogen bases in the DNA chain, different amino acids are synthesized. One amino acid is formed using three nitrogen bases adjacent to each other (triplet). Importantly, there are 64 different triplets in human DNA that code for 20 amino acids. This means that one amino acid can be encoded by different triplets.

The study, the results of which was published in "Genome Biology", showed that the DNA sequence of experimental microorganisms changes depending on the availability of nitrogen in the diet. The richer in nitrogen (high-protein) diets, the more nitrogen-rich alkalis in the genetic material. In contrast, a diet low in nitrogen (with a high proportion of carbohydrates) makes bases with a lower nitrogen content preferable. Despite these differences in the DNA chain, the same genes are still encoded because changes to the nitrogen base sequences only occur within triplets thatencode the same amino acids.

The results of the experiment have shown an undiscovered relationship between cellular metabolism and evolutionary changes that are a consequence of changes in the DNA chain. They provide preliminary information on how the genetic material can change due to the body's adaptation to different diets. It also explains why closely related organisms have such different DNA. Moreover, it turns out that on the basis of the analysis of the genetic material it is possible to determine the type of diet of closely related organisms. Cell metabolism altered under the influence of diet is only one element influencing the sequence of genes, but this relationship is very strong and confirms the popular statement that we really are what we eat.

The effect of diet on he alth: examples confirmed by scientific research

The father's diet affects the he alth of the offspring because epigenetic information is transmitted in the sperm, including DNA methylation.

  • Scientists from Cornell University, by analyzing the data contained in the materials of the "1000 Genoms Project", have found evidence that a vegetarian diet used in the wrong proportion of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids provided with food increases the risk of chronic conditions inflammatory diseases that cause heart disease and colon cancer. It is the first finding that there is a diet-induced mutation in a specific gene. Based on the analysis of the data, it was concluded that a vegetarian diet used for many generations in the population of the Puna district in India could cause a much more frequent mutation of the gene responsible for the metabolism of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.

  • Based on the 2011 experience with plant microRNAs (a type of genetic material), a close relationship has been shown between the biochemistry of food and the biochemistry of the organism that eats it. Plant microRNA particles circulating in their blood have been detected in laboratory animals, as well as in humans, which influence the expression of genes, i.e. the process by which the products stored in the genetic material are made. Researchers at Nanjing University found that the most common microRNA in the blood of the Chinese participating in the study was rice RNA, a staple food ingredient. In a study in mice, it was shown that rice microRNA binds to the messenger RNA of the animal, thereby preventing the expression of a specific gene. The experiment showed that the presence of the microRNA reduced the amount of receptors in the liver responsible for removing "bad" LDL cholesterol and increased the level of LDL in the blood.

  • WAs a result of the analysis of epidemiological and molecular studies, it was found that the diet of a pregnant woman affects her epigenome and the epigenome of the fetus, and consequently has a long-term impact on the child's he alth. According to Karen Lillycrop, a prenatal nutrition specialist at the University of Southampton, the mother's diet depends on her baby's risk of developing insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and the risk of obesity.

  • Epigenome altered by the father's diet can affect the baby's metabolism, development of the immune system and risk of disease.

Sources:

  1. Seward E.A., Kelly S., Dietary nitrogen alters codon bias and genome composition in parasitic microorganisms, Genome Biology, 17: 226, doi: 10.1186 / s13059-016-1087-9 Scientists uncover genetic evidence that "we are what we eat ", https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115111720.html
  2. Caspermeyer J., Are We What We Eat? Evidence of a Vegetarian Diet Permanently Shaping the Human Genome to Change Individual Risk of Cancer and Heart Disease, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2016, doi: 10.1093 / molbev / msw076
  3. What you eat affects your genes: RNA from rice can survive diegstion and alter gene expression, http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/09/21/what-you-eat-affects-your -genes-rna-from-rice-can-survive-digestion-and- alter-gene-expression / . WGoKVPnhDIU
  4. Hunter P., We are what we eat. The link between diet, evolution and non-genetic inheritance, EMBO Reports, 2008, 9 (5), 413-415
  5. http: //articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/02/22/you-are-what-you-eat.aspx

How to lose weight he althily - advice from psychodietetics

Each of us dreams of a slim and shapely figure. However, not all methods of losing weight are good for our he alth. How to wisely and he althily lose weight? Listen to our expert - psychodietician and he alth coach Elżbieta Lange.

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