Genetics, Nutrition, and Health: A New Frontier in Disease Prevention

Abstract

The field of nutrition research has traditionally focused on the effects of macronutrients and micronutrients on the body. However, it has become evident that individuals have unique genetic makeups that influence their response to food. Nutritional genomics, which includes nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics, explores the interaction between an individual’s genetic makeup, diet, and health outcomes. Nutrigenetics studies the impact of genetic variation on an individual’s response to dietary nutrients, while nutrigenomics investigates how dietary components affect gene regulation and expression. These disciplines seek to understand the impact of diet on the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome. It provides insights into the mechanisms underlying the effect of diet on gene expression. Nutrients can cause the modification of genetic expression through epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications. The aim of nutrigenomics is to create personalized diets based on the unique metabolic profile of an individual, gut microbiome, and genetic makeup to prevent diseases and promote health. Nutrigenomics has the potential to revolutionize the field of nutrition by combining the practicality of personalized nutrition with knowledge of genetic factors underlying health and disease. Thus, nutrigenomics offers a promising approach to improving health outcomes (in terms of disease prevention) through personalized nutrition strategies based on an individual’s genetic and metabolic characteristics.

KEY TEACHING POINTS

• Genetic differences among individuals affect the metabolism, gene regulation, and sensitivity of disease in response to diet therefore traditional nutrition research expands to integrate the influence of genetics on the dietary response of an individual.

• Nutritional genomics which includes the reciprocal and complementary field of nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics, studies the interactions between gene and dietary components.

• Nutrigenetics studies the genetic effect on the metabolism of nutrients while Nutrigenomics explores the impact of nutrients on genetic expression thus shaping personalized dietary requirements.

• A personalized dietary approach based on comprehensive genomic profiling (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics) can help to promote health and prevent illness.

Keywords:

• Nutrigenetics
• nutrigenomics
• single nucleotide polymorphisms
• metabolomics
• non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
• bioactive compounds
• health effects

Authors’ contributions

PA: Writing- Original Draft, Writing- Review & Editing, Resources, Data Curation, Visualization; JK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision; JS, PR, KS: Visualization, Supervision; VB, SK, VK: Supervision, Formal analysis.

Consent to participate

All the authors have read and approved the manuscript, and all are aware of its submission to the journal.

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.