Epigenetics & Food
In today's society, we have been brainwashed into believing that our DNA is our destiny. I.e. Whatever cards we were dealt from mom and dad is absolute and there is nothing we can do about it..."It's in our genetic makeup." However, this is far from the truth.
According to Dr. Sara Gottfried, author of NYT best seller 'Younger,' "only 10% of disease is determined by our genetics." That means that 90% of disease stems from imbalances in the body due to poor lifestyle choices and stress from our surrounding environment. The study of how our genes transiently change expression (activation/inactivation) based on the environment is known as epigenetics, and it is one of the hottest topics in biomedical research right now!
Think of your genes as a dimmer light switch. Our genes can be "turned on," "turned off," "turned down," or "turned up" to either promote homeostasis in the body (balance and normal function) or dysfunction and disease progression. But, only the set of DNA you have, also known as your genotype (blueprint), can transiently change expression. If you don't have that "gene" in your blueprint, you don't have it! The set of traits which make up your biochemistry and the way you physically look are known as your phenotype, and those set of traits are determined based on how your DNA interacts with the different environment.
Our DNA is constantly receiving information from both our external and internal environment to determine our phenotype. Our body is one example of our internal environment. Every time we eat food, our DNA is receiving information to change the level of activation of our genes. You can think of your genes as these hypersensitive nutrient sensors that are constantly scanning and processing your environment.
If you don't nourish your body properly, expose yourself to toxic chemicals, and allow stress to permeate into your body, you increase your risk of your body becoming out of balance. Examples of this include inflammatory imbalances, hormonal imbalances, structural imbalances, immune imbalances, detoxification imbalances, digestive and absorption imbalances, toxic emotions, and mytochondrial dysfunction.
