title: Decoding the pyramid: a systems-biological approach to nutrigenomics.
abstract: Nutritional genomics, or nutrigenomics, seeks to understand the effects of diet on an individual's genes and health. Nutrigenomics is a systems-biological science that can be explained by five principal tenets: (1) improper diets in some individuals and under some conditions are risk factors for chronic diseases; (2) common dietary chemicals alter gene expression and/or genome structure; (3) the influence of diet on health depends upon an individual's genetic makeup; (4) some genes or their normal common variants are regulated by diet, which may play a role in chronic diseases; and (5) dietary interventions based upon knowledge of nutritional requirements, nutritional status, and genotype can be used to develop individualized nutrition plans that optimize health and prevent or mitigate chronic diseases. Optimal nutrition may also influence the aging process.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of High Speed Computing and Informatics, NCMHD Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. jkaput@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaput
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004194:Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000502:physiology; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena