The DNA is our blueprint and once it’s coded, we can’t change it.  But what gets expressed can.  This is the job of our epigenes, it determines what gene gets turned on and off from our DNA.

The study of epigenome has largely been ignored for the last couple of decades, until fairly recently.  The connection between epigenes and some major diseases have perked the interest of the scientific community as of late. The latest research has discovered a strong relationship between human cancer and changes in the epigenome.  Researchers are hoping that in the future, they can look at the epigenetic changes to predict whether cancer will occur or not, and provide the proper treatment for prevention or be able to treat the disease in it’s earliest stages.

Researchers have also found that epigenome is affected by the environment and the changes in the epigenes can be passed down from one generation to the next.  If this is the case, it helps partly explain the epidemic of certain diseases in the US such as obesity and diabetes.  The epigenetic changes caused by environmental factors may express certain genes linked to obesity or diabetes. And if these changes are passed on from one generation to the next it’s easy to see why the problem has gotten out of control.

Researchers from Melbourne are now suggesting that food choices you make may also have epigenetic components as well.

“They have been investigating the way human cells have a “memory” and they discovered that a cell, when given a one-off sugar hit, will carry a related chemical marker for weeks”

“ Dr. El-Osta said it showed how cells could remember and replicate the effects on the body of a poor diet”

If this is the case, that means individual metabolic reactions to foods can be passed down from one generation to the next.  An obese individual will likely have much greater negative effects from eating a piece of chocolate than an individual without weight issues, assuming that the obesity was due to changes in the epigenes.  Talk about “a moment on the lips and a lifetime on the hips!”

If our bodies are remembering what we eat and how we react to these foods, it most likely means that it remembers everything else we do to our bodies.  This might also help explain why so many people go through the weight loss and weight gain roller coaster.  If you think about it, every time you go on a crash diet and you lose weight quickly, but then gain the weight back, your body remembers the result on a cellular level.  All the metabolic reactions that took place to lose the weight and gain it back is “remembered” by the cells in your body.  And so the next time you do another crash diet and the same result happens, it just reinforces the pattern even stronger.  Your body literally learns the metabolic response to the crash diets.  The scary part is, now there’s strong evidence that this pattern is passed down to the next generation through changes made in your epigenes.  I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.

All the studies on epigenome confirms that there is a strong genetic component in obesity.  However, since epigenome changes are caused by environmental factors, it’s fair to assume that all of the outcomes can also be reversed.  Changing the environmental factors to turn off the genes that expresses obesity is just as possible.  This would mean that proper nutrition and proper exercise becomes doubly important, and it may also mean that “cheating” on the diet or “skipping” a workout may mean bigger consequences that keeps you further away from achieving the goal.  And although it seems unfair that it’s harder to lose weight for people that need it the most, I think it’s really helpful to know the truth.  It truly does require a lifestyle change.  It’s a long term commitment, with no short cuts or magic pills.  It’s powerful to know though, that you have the ability to literally change your epigenome.  You can’t change the DNA, but you can change your epigene and that means your future generations.

It takes commitment and dedication to make a change for the better, but the change you make today for your health, will cause a ripple effect for generations to follow.