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comments on Fix Your Insulin; Fix Your Fat

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:12:01 GMT

Leslie Camacho
Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:12:01 GMT

Love all the great food and nutrition you've been introducing me to Marc. What can I read, do, start... etc to find out what I should be eating? Where do I start to know how to work with my genes?

Marc Wagner
Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:54:41 GMT

Great questions Les! For a conceptual read, I recommend Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes. For practical cooking resources, stay tuned. I’m working on a post about that right now. Yay! The genetic question is bit more complex because nutrigenomics is a rapidly developing field without as much consensus as I would like. What I did for myself was pay $99 for SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) testing through 23andMe. I then hired a nutrigenomics specialist in Chicago to unbundle the raw data and go over the results with me and make suggestions. The experience was interesting to me and did provide some useful feedback, but in my opinion, SNP testing and consultation must always include a thorough patient history and additional lab testing to round out the picture. Because not all SNPs “express themselves”. In other words, just because you find fault with your genes on a lab test doesn’t mean those SNPs are actively creating functional problems, or ever will, because of all the other “epigenetic” influences in your life that either suppress or surface genetic problem s. If you think about it, that’s what lifestyle medicine is all about anyway! Optimizing your epigenetic influences. So if you’re wondering if you have “thrifty” genes, you can pretty much see those in your family tree without fancy genetic testing. Do you have family history of chunkiness or diabetes? If yes, then that’s enough information to consider doubling down on a low-glycemic diet. If I’ve piqued your interest in nutrigenomics and your want to know more, then I would recommend following Dr. Ben Lynch at http://mthfr.net, or http://drbenlynch.com Hope that helps.