Science Proclaims That What You Eat Can Affect Your Grandchildren's DNA
Isn't science just great? Not only should we all be concerned about how our diets are making everyone fatter, two new studies have found that your choice of food might somehow affect future generations. Turns out that not only are you what you eat, but pretty much everyone who is ever
going to sprout from your loins might become what you're eating, too.
The two independent studies involved epigenetics, which refers to changes in gene expression from outside forces. An epigenetic change has nothing to do with mutation, as the change doesn't lie in the DNA itself but rather the enzymes and chemicals that determine how DNA unwinds in different sections in order to make proteins or new cells. Historical examples of this can be traced back to children born to mothers during the Dutch famine towards the end of WWII, who were found to be susceptible to glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease.
For the first study, researchers from Torsten Plosch at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands used a previous study conducted Duke University. The findings showed that that there were many ways in which nutrition alters the epigenome in many animals, including humans.
In another similar study led by Ram B. Singh of the TsimTsoum Institute in Krakow, Poland suggests that diet can affect the broth of chromatin that DNA floats around in, and that nutrients introduced into the chromatin can even cause mutations. Such results have been inconclusive, but since the cells in a state of early development are more susceptible to epigenetic changes than adult cells, this might explain why the most notable changes are seen in fetuses and infants.
via CBS News
The two independent studies involved epigenetics, which refers to changes in gene expression from outside forces. An epigenetic change has nothing to do with mutation, as the change doesn't lie in the DNA itself but rather the enzymes and chemicals that determine how DNA unwinds in different sections in order to make proteins or new cells. Historical examples of this can be traced back to children born to mothers during the Dutch famine towards the end of WWII, who were found to be susceptible to glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease.
For the first study, researchers from Torsten Plosch at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands used a previous study conducted Duke University. The findings showed that that there were many ways in which nutrition alters the epigenome in many animals, including humans.
In another similar study led by Ram B. Singh of the TsimTsoum Institute in Krakow, Poland suggests that diet can affect the broth of chromatin that DNA floats around in, and that nutrients introduced into the chromatin can even cause mutations. Such results have been inconclusive, but since the cells in a state of early development are more susceptible to epigenetic changes than adult cells, this might explain why the most notable changes are seen in fetuses and infants.
via CBS News
