The aim of nutrigenetics is to generate nutritional recommendations according to a person's gene pool, i.e. to establish a relationship between nutrition and health that previously, for example, traditional diets did not take into account, considering only individual aspects such as age, sex, height, physical exercise and some biochemical variables.
On the basis of these parameters, which were sufficient but incomplete, general dietary guidelines were offered for large population groups, without considering in detail the genetic specificity of the individual.
The nutrigenetic test is a precision tool of fundamental importance.
Today, advances in the field of nutrigenetics, and especially at 24Genetics, help us to establish what diet we should follow not only to improve our diet (also called DNA diet test) but also to prevent a series of diseases identified from the analysis of our DNA and which can be avoided or modulated by means of specific dietary guidelines.
That said, we can affirm that the nutrigenetic test is a precision tool of fundamental importance when it comes to personalising our diet or preventing future illnesses.
This simple test will allow us to know which foods we should add or reduce to cover our nutrient needs and to prevent diseases that can be addressed through nutrition.
The evolution of the concept of nutrition.
Nutrition is to be understood as the intake of food in relation to the body's dietary needs.
The concept of satisfying hunger to achieve an optimal state of health is an outdated concept, which has led to the development of various currents among nutrition experts that, although different in their way of thinking, almost always converge on a common premise: the importance of eating unprocessed food, avoiding additives and always trying to enhance the contribution of fruit and vegetables as fundamental elements of nutrition.
And here they come into play because recommendations aimed at providing general guidance for the entire population, or for a certain group of people, do not take into account a factor that makes us unique: our DNA and the specific needs that may arise from the genetic information we present.
Fortunately, the nutrigenetic test is a tool that allows us to know a little more about ourselves and to adapt the general recommendations to our particular case. Thanks to them, it is possible to take our DNA into account when defining the most suitable diet for each person.
Genetic differences between individuals can condition nutritional needs and even predispose to different pathologies of multifactorial origin, i.e. they are influenced by genetics and the environment.
Nutritional genomics tries to study and provide information about this interesting interaction between genetics and nutrition.
How can DNA influence nutrition?
DNA is a molecule of life and therefore contains all the information necessary to maintain and preserve life, including nutrition and to fight disease in the first place.
Each individual has small particularities in his or her DNA that make us unique and, in the same way, define our needs, strengths and weaknesses.
For this reason, genetics is increasingly involved in the care of healthy people in order to maintain health and prevent disease.