Nutrigenomic research ultimately aims to unravel the interactions between nutrients and genes. The father of Western medicine Hippocrates famously said: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food", arguing that disease was not a punishment from the gods, but the consequence of a poor diet.
Today, we know that lifestyle and environment interact with diet to affect our health. And we are increasingly recognising particular nutrients at key phases in our lives are not only essential to metabolism, but are also required in defined amounts if we are to reduce the risk of early and late-life diseases.
This approach, called personalised nutrition, results from genome sequencing and has provided a new perspective on nutritional advice by helping us understand the unique nutritional requirements of each individual. My area of research is called nutritional genetics, a component of the "omics" field known as nutrigenomics. Simply, this area analyses genetic variations found in human DNA called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Almost all (99.9 per cent) of human DNA is the same and SNPs represent the remaining 0.01 per cent.
These SNPs are the most common type of genetic variation and account for approximately 10 million in the human genome.
Scientists working in the area of nutritional genetics look at how these genetic variations affect the body's interaction with nutrients.
