Nutrigenomics: An Approach Beyond Functional Dairy Foods for Personal Health

摘要

After the Human Genome Project completed in 2003, people were trying to find out how to have a better life using an insight into their unique DNA, and how to formulate their diet as per their unique genetics. This type of dieting with a DNA based approach is known as "Nutrigenomics", which brings out how the natural bioactive constituents in foods alter gene expression in individuals. This has revolutionized the focus of medicine from treatment to prevention. It is already known that there exist individual differences in gene sequences due to which there is differential reaction to environmental factors, like diet. In contrary, Nutrigenetics is another discipline that includes study of individual differences at the molecular genetics level so far asindividual responses to diet are concerned. Such individual differences might not be at the gene level but may be at the level of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Thus, it clarifies that different individuals have distinct reaction of the gene to the same food constituent. Such genetic differences, like single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are single nucleotide base variations within a genomic sequence which is the core genetic factor of the emerging field called nutritional genomics or in short nutrigenomics.