Your Genes Don’t Have to Be Your Destiny – Here’s Why
March 29, 2018
Scientists say that three key factors influence your health: your lifestyle, environment, and genes. Specifically, the interaction of the three determines how healthy you are.
It’s easy to learn about your nutrition-related genes with at-home kits like Habit Core, which includes DNA cheek-swabs as part of our comprehensive testing process. But once you get your results, you may wonder if you should be concerned about your genetic predispositions. Or if having “good” genes means you can pay less attention to your eating and exercise habits.
The truth is, genes don’t necessarily determine your destiny. That’s why we also consider your body metrics, blood work, and goals when we create your personalized nutrition plan. That said, your genetic information can still help you make smarter choices about your health. Here’s why.
You may have thought that a single gene determines if you have blue eyes or black hair, but that’s not the case. Multiple genes, and the variations within them, work together to determine your physical traits. They can also contribute to your health.
Here’s a visual: each gene is like a musical instrument in a symphony. The symphony plays a song (you), and the groups of instruments, like all the violins, contribute a distinct sound (for example, your hair color).
The most common type of genetic variations among people are single nucleotide polymorphisms, frequently called SNPs (pronounced “snips”). There are thousands of nutrition-related SNPs, and many of them have been linked to various nutrition-related outcomes, like a predisposition for high blood pressure and weight gain.
For example, an SNP called FTO rs9939609 has been reported to be associated with an increased risk for obesity and impaired satiety (the full feeling you get after you eat).
If you had the FTO risk variant associated with obesity, you may wonder whether you should be concerned about it. Here’s why it won’t necessarily cause you to pack on the pounds.
If these friends go through a stressful time together and end up sitting on the couch eating lots of fast food for a few weeks, they both might gain weight. But the friend with the FTO risk variant may be more likely to gain weight.
However, there’s no guarantee that the friend with the FTO risk variant will gain more weight. Why is there no guarantee? Because a single SNP only plays a supporting role, not the main role, in your health—and sometimes it doesn’t contribute to your health at all. Whether an SNP affects you depends on lifestyle factors like what you eat and how much you exercise. Plus, other SNPs may factor in as well.
Going back to the music analogy, a single instrument represents a single SNP, and it may not always make a sound or be heard among the other instruments. Your environment also influences how your genes affect you. A theater would represent your environment and it can affect how the symphony sounds.
This is why some people with the FTO risk variant don’t become overweight, while others do. In other words, sometimes your body tells a different story than your genes, and sometimes it tells the same story. Your lifestyle can make all the difference in your outcome, no matter what your genotype says.
Both friends can lose weight, even the one with the FTO risk variant. Researchers at Newcastle University reviewed eight studies involving over 9,000 people and found that people with the FTO risk variant responded just as well to weight loss interventions as those without it.
Yet understanding your genes can help motivate and support your decision-making when it comes to wellness goals.
Getting back to the friend with the FTO risk variant: knowing about her genes can inspire her to make healthy changes, like finding alternative ways to cope with stress instead of eating fast food.
That’s why Habit takes an integrated approach to nutrition: in addition to your DNA, we look at your blood and body metrics. We want to know: are your genes, blood levels, and body metrics telling the same story or different one?
Your genes are an important part of your story, but they don’t have to determine your future. At Habit, we help you do everything you can nutritionally to be well, regardless of your genetic predispositions.
It’s easy to learn about your nutrition-related genes with at-home kits like Habit Core, which includes DNA cheek-swabs as part of our comprehensive testing process. But once you get your results, you may wonder if you should be concerned about your genetic predispositions. Or if having “good” genes means you can pay less attention to your eating and exercise habits.
The truth is, genes don’t necessarily determine your destiny. That’s why we also consider your body metrics, blood work, and goals when we create your personalized nutrition plan. That said, your genetic information can still help you make smarter choices about your health. Here’s why.
First, a primer on genes
You have around 20,000 genes, and each one is made up of DNA. You inherit two copies of each gene, one from each parent.You may have thought that a single gene determines if you have blue eyes or black hair, but that’s not the case. Multiple genes, and the variations within them, work together to determine your physical traits. They can also contribute to your health.
Here’s a visual: each gene is like a musical instrument in a symphony. The symphony plays a song (you), and the groups of instruments, like all the violins, contribute a distinct sound (for example, your hair color).
The connection between nutrition and genes
Every human is 99.9 percent identical in their genetic makeup, and the remaining 0.1 percent is what makes us different.The most common type of genetic variations among people are single nucleotide polymorphisms, frequently called SNPs (pronounced “snips”). There are thousands of nutrition-related SNPs, and many of them have been linked to various nutrition-related outcomes, like a predisposition for high blood pressure and weight gain.
For example, an SNP called FTO rs9939609 has been reported to be associated with an increased risk for obesity and impaired satiety (the full feeling you get after you eat).
If you had the FTO risk variant associated with obesity, you may wonder whether you should be concerned about it. Here’s why it won’t necessarily cause you to pack on the pounds.
Your genes and your body can end up telling two different stories
Imagine two friends. Both are a healthy weight and get plenty of exercise. But one has the FTO risk variant and the other doesn’t.If these friends go through a stressful time together and end up sitting on the couch eating lots of fast food for a few weeks, they both might gain weight. But the friend with the FTO risk variant may be more likely to gain weight.
However, there’s no guarantee that the friend with the FTO risk variant will gain more weight. Why is there no guarantee? Because a single SNP only plays a supporting role, not the main role, in your health—and sometimes it doesn’t contribute to your health at all. Whether an SNP affects you depends on lifestyle factors like what you eat and how much you exercise. Plus, other SNPs may factor in as well.
Going back to the music analogy, a single instrument represents a single SNP, and it may not always make a sound or be heard among the other instruments. Your environment also influences how your genes affect you. A theater would represent your environment and it can affect how the symphony sounds.
This is why some people with the FTO risk variant don’t become overweight, while others do. In other words, sometimes your body tells a different story than your genes, and sometimes it tells the same story. Your lifestyle can make all the difference in your outcome, no matter what your genotype says.
Both friends can lose weight, even the one with the FTO risk variant. Researchers at Newcastle University reviewed eight studies involving over 9,000 people and found that people with the FTO risk variant responded just as well to weight loss interventions as those without it.
Your genotype is a predisposition, not a prediction
And the absence of a particular genotype is not a prediction either. For example, many people can still gain weight or develop high blood pressure without being genetically predisposed to do so.Yet understanding your genes can help motivate and support your decision-making when it comes to wellness goals.
Getting back to the friend with the FTO risk variant: knowing about her genes can inspire her to make healthy changes, like finding alternative ways to cope with stress instead of eating fast food.
That’s why Habit takes an integrated approach to nutrition: in addition to your DNA, we look at your blood and body metrics. We want to know: are your genes, blood levels, and body metrics telling the same story or different one?
Your genes are an important part of your story, but they don’t have to determine your future. At Habit, we help you do everything you can nutritionally to be well, regardless of your genetic predispositions.
