QDNA^® Blog

We Are What We Eat | Organics & Nutrigenomics
Food To Supercharge Your Genes

By Marina Rose, QDNA^®

The Magnificent Human Experience^™ | Epigenetics

March 01, 2015

“You know what the best kind of organic certification would be?”
“Make an unannounced visit to a farm and take a good long look at the farmer's bookshelf, because what you're feeding your emotions and thoughts is what this is really all about.”
                                      --Joel Salatin, Local Organic Farming Advocate

Eating is one of life's greatest pleasures. From the very first milk that we take, to the vast array of culinary creations, food gives us sustenance, pleasure and incomparable delight.

A joy to our senses, food brings people together.

Expressed through the emotion of color and vibrancy of flavors, we travel the world though culinary destinations. It defines us as a culture and gives us identity, expressed in countless flavors, tastes and regional spice.

In some cultures food is like a ritual. From the piping hot pastas of Rome, to the delightful handmade fetas of Athens, to exotically spiced couscous of Tangier, friends and families gather in culinary ritual to break bread and share stories over their favorite meal.

Food stirs our emotions and seeds our remembrance. The smells of aromas arouse our affections and invoke powerful memories that travel back through time.

Food energizes us and gives us health, vitality, power and strength. It comforts us too, when life gets us down. Some foods such as chocolate even help us to fall in love again. We swoon in the magical feel-good moments-- Deep Dark, Semi Sweet or Silky Smooth--all matching the frequency of love in our minds.

As the saying goes, we are what we eat, and if our bodies are our temples, then food is surely the way that we worship our shrine.

SAD | Our Modern Western Diet

If food plays such an important role in our lives, then why is it so difficult to eat well, stay healthy and enjoy good nutrition?

The simple answer is SAD and the Modern Western Diet.

In the United States it is referred to as SAD, or Standard American Diet, yet the issues faced by most Americans are now increasingly found all over the Western world.

Even with the knowledge of the importance of eating well and maintaining a healthy diet, our busy modern lifestyles, complete with fast food high in fat and sugar, food additives and petrochemicals, and our hyper hectic schedules that leave little or no time, often make healthy eating a challenge, sabotaging even our best of intentions.

Statistics show that the Modern Western Diet is the main reason why people all over the world are fatter and sicker than ever before. Triggered by a direct link in the loss of traditional local foods, it seems that everywhere modern processed foods go--chronic diseases like obesity, high-blood pressure, diabetes hair loss, high cholesterol, bad skin, hair loss, high cholesterol, bad skin, and heart disease soon follow.

Many factors contribute to good health or illness, but changes in diet are by far the most important. Statistics point to a number of culprits, including the high consumption of sugar, trans-fats, refined grains, processed-soy fillers, sodas, and an overall increase in calories in general.

Calorie spikes have surged not only due to larger serving and portion sizes, but also due to the overall high calorie low nutrition content found in most processed foods as well.

Sugar intake, for example, has skyrocketed in the average Modern Western Diet over the past 160 years. People in Western countries are consuming massive amounts of refined sugars, reaching about 150 lbs (67 kg) per year in some countries. This amounts to over 500 calories of sugar per day. Statistics vary from country to country, but it is clear that we are consuming much more sugar than our bodies are equipped to handle.

Studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the American Association for Cancer Research show that large amounts of sugar can lead to severe changes in metabolism, resulting in a wide range of illnesses from obesity to diabetes, and excessively high sugar intake may even contribute to increased risk of colon cancer, a form of the disease that was once considered rare.

Of all the sugar sources that we consume, high sugar soft drinks, sugar waters, sport beverages and other sugary beverages are by far the worst. What’s more, studies show that sugar in liquid form is particularly harmful because liquid sugar calories are not registered in the brain the same way as calories from solid foods are. Despite the high calorie intake, our brains tell us that we are still hungry, so we then eat more, and in turn dramatically increase our overall total calorie intake.

A study published by the Department of Medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston found that even one serving of sugar-sweetened beverage to children each day is directly linked to an overall 60% increase in the risk of childhood obesity--and adults don’t fare much better when it comes to the sugary sweet drinks as well.

If enormous amounts of sugars were not bad enough, then there’s the other culprit-- the evil three letter word that’s called fat. Processed foods are filled with hydrogenated oil, which makes them high in trans-fats, a particularly bad form of fat which is directly linked to heart disease and a host of other illness.

Not only are sugars and trans fats bad for your health, they are also highly addictive as well. More surprisingly, processed grains, which convert to sugar in the body are also equally addictive.

Have you ever tried to getting off white flour and white sugar?

It’s volatile for the body, mind and emotions. It’s like getting off an addiction to drug or alcohol it takes about three to four weeks for the detox to complete.

In a bold display of medical support for healthy eating, a study published in The American Journal of Medicine actually stated that following a Modern Western Diet consisting of fried and sweet foods, processed and red meats, refined grains instead of whole grains, and high-fat dairy products can reduce a person's likelihood of achieving older age in good health. For those who are health conscious this may seem like a complete no-brainer, but it’s good to know that the science is finally catching up.

From Farm Fresh To FrankenFoods

What’s more, the rise in modern industrial agriculture, the system by which we –grow- the vast majority of our food today, has also wrought havoc upon health, diet and nutrition. From pesticide laden produce, to antibiotics in our meats, the big business of supplying us our meals has lead to a slow erosion of the overall quality of the foods that we eat.

Infections from drug resistant bacteria are now all too common, and have been directly linked to the abuse of antibiotics in the meat and poultry industries, where drugs are indiscriminately added to animal feed to make them grow faster and fatter, bolstering meat producers' profits at the expense of consumer health.

Add to that, the increasing use of genetically modified foods that is rapidly spreading throughout our food system. Just a hundred years ago junk foods were barely in circulation. Now we have the addition of GMOs to our food chain, or Genetically Modified Organisms, and it has happened so fast that there has been barely enough time to evaluate at what cost.

Genetically modified foods are everywhere now. In the past two decades GMOs have completely infiltrated our farm fields, supermarkets, restaurants and kitchens alike. Since they are not required to be labeled, most of us don’t even have a clue just how much of it we’re even eating — say nothing of how much it is affecting our health.

Unlike conventional or organic crops, GMO crops are created to be so-called super-plants that can withstand things like insect attacks and drought. They are even modified to look and taste “better”, qualities that are completely artificial, but make them more appealing to consumers to buy. They are designed to withstand enormous and excessive amounts of pesticides so that farmers can aggressively use these chemicals in the war on bugs—and therefore yield ever increasing more crops, as profits steadily increase as well.

Some of the GMO seeds actually have harmful pesticides directly encoded into their DNA, meaning that farmers save money on spraying, but the foods they produce will also contain the pesticide encoded gene of the chemicals contained in their seeds. This is a radical introduction of pesticides into the living plant animal and human genetic makeup with potential side effects that are completely unforeseen.

If that’s not bad enough, research now shows that GMOs can potentially allow the transfer of –any– gene across –any– species— in ways that producers simply have never imagined. A new gene may be merged together from a plant virus, a soil bacterium and say a petunia plant, for example — three wildly different species — creating a kind of botanical Frankenstein if you will, leading to what many consider to be a whole new generation genetically scary “FrankenFoods”, a term used to describe the uncanny similarly to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein thriller, in which the infamous doctor wanted to create the perfect human being, but ended up created the ultimate grisly monster instead – and we all know how that story turned out.

Genetic plant modifications are extremely unwieldy and imprecise. “Genetic engineering takes artificial combinations of genes that have never existed together, forcibly inserts them into random locations in the host genome and then clones the results,” says Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and author of Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods Until recently, genes were thought of like Lego toys, and plant scientists imagined that they could snap unwanted genes out and snap desired genes in without any impact on the surrounding DNA. But that novel theory was turned upside down when the Human Genome Project discovered that genes do not work in isolation that way at all, but rather work together as part of a system, and inserting new genes into a plant’s DNA can create unforeseen collateral damage in the food chain as a whole. What affects in humans might GMOs be having? Without labeling and proper testing we simply do not know.

Twenty-five years ago, plant genetics was an obscure science and far from the center of the food chain. Today, more than 54 percent of American crops contain GMOs and roughly 70 percent of processed foods harbor at least one genetically modified ingredient, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization. Sugar, beets, potatoes, corn, squash, rice, soybeans, vegetable oils and animal feed have all been genetically modified. American farmers alone planted more than 170 million acres of GMO crops in the last few years alone. There is even a genetically engineered salmon and fish in the works, say nothing of the slow spread of GMOs into the global food chain worldwide.

Not surprisingly, there is a lot of money is at stake in the world of GMOs, and Big Agribusiness -- like Big Pharmaceuticals-- is guarded with extreme lobbying and protectionism, as consumers cling for dear life. Monsanto, the world’s largest supplier of GMOs, last year alone reported sales in excess of $13.5 billion, up 14 percent from the year before. That is a lot of money with a lot of profit at stake, and although sales and profits from GMOs are easy to track, it is far more difficult to track the impact that they are having on our health. At this point no one really knows for sure, and by the time we know it may already be too late. The one thing we do know for sure is that since the introduction of GMO soy into the American diet, girls are getting their periods younger and younger. Men are actually showing signs of breast development and there is a rapid increase in diseases that simply didn’t exist 50 years ago. Very telling signs that GMO’s are might clearly be to blame.

Mandatory and federally regulated GMO labeling is critical, yet the GMO political lobbying machine is ruthless and heavily funded. In the Unites States consumer state initiatives for mandatory GMO labeling have been all but crushed by large scale, big moneyed disinformation campaigns, while in Europe, under strict mandatory labeling GMO foods have made a comeback, were they were once completely banned. This powerful control of consumer information speaks loudly to the incredible power of profit and the large multi-national agricultural lobby that supplies food to the world.

From SAD To Happy With An Organic Diet

With Big Agribusiness playing Russian Roulette with pesticides and GMOs, it’s all adding up to a growing awareness of the value of eating Organic, and fortunately the debate about the advantages of organic foods is finally considered over.

According to a new $25 million study by European Union into the benefits of organic food - the largest ever to date of its kind - organic food is more nutritious than ordinary produce and this increased nutrition is scientifically proven to help prevent disease and lengthen lives.

The study found that organic fruits and vegetables have up to 50% more antioxidants, which scientists believe can dramatically cut the risk of cancer and heart disease. They have significantly more vitamins and minerals such as iron and zinc, all crucial elements to good overall nutrition.

Further, the study shows that people eating organic foods have improved immune systems as well. They also have better sleeping habits and are less likely to be overweight than when eating conventionally farmed foods.

In addition, the study found that the taste of organic fruits and vegetables are often superior to that of conventional produce, which may explain why so many top restaurants use only organic produce from locally grown farmed foods in the preparation of their meals. The advantages of organic foods were found to be highest for children-- and especially infants—whose developing bodies benefit from their higher nutrition and whose immune systems are more easily susceptible to the harmful residues of pesticides.

In addition to GMOs and pesticides, there are also other considerations such as food irradiation as well. Irradiation is a process where high energy electrons or X-rays are used to preserve food freshness.

Today, most fruits and veggies are irradiated to look and stay good for long travel from the source to supermarket shelves. Organic vegetables, however, are irradiation-free, and tend to be supplied more locally, directly from the local source. Although irradiation kills bacteria and extends the life of the food we eat, it also alters the molecular structure of our food, reducing its nutritional value, making fresh organic fruits and vegetables a much healthier choice.

Even amongst meat eaters there is a rise in eating organics. Organically farmed animals are raised without dangerous chemicals, growth hormones, antibiotics or other drugs.

According new research, drugs and chemicals found in animal feed contribute to as much as 95% of the toxic chemical residues in the American diet, and meat, fish and poultry have up to 10 times the amount of the dangerous chemicals as conventional produce. Yet another good reason to go organic, beyond just for your fruits and vegetables, but for meat as well.

In addition to providing better health and nutrition, organic eating also supports a healthier environment. Conventional farming, with its heavy reliance on pesticides and chemicals, is by far one of the largest sources pollution in the world today. By making a smart and healthy choice to eat organic, we use our purchasing power as consumers to have a huge positive impact on the global environment as well.

Food To Supercharge Your Genes

Because food is packed full of complex, biologically active molecules, its impact on our health should come as no surprise. What’s more, science now tells us that not only do our genes influence our diet — but that our diet influences our genes as well, having shaped human evolution over millions of years, in a complex exchange that continues today.

Nutrigenomics is a new field of study that leverages this relationship between nutrition, genetics and health, blurring the boundaries between food and medicine, and heralding in a new era of personalized nutrition.

When the initial phase of the Human Genome project was completed in 2003, it supplied the groundbreaking data for the birth of Nutrigenomics. This groundbreaking international scientific research project set out with the goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up human DNA, and of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome. Spanning more than 13 years, it was reported to have cost more than $3 billion dollars. It has identified approximately 30,000 genes present in the human body and remains the world's largest collaborative biological project to date.

The unprecedented data acquired throughout this program has given the world a whole new set of tools to research genes and diet—and to develop new lifestyle approaches based on the latest Nutrigenomics, which holds the potential to empower us to live richer and more fulfilling lives.

Nutrigenomics shows us that while humans are very similar genetically, we all have slight differences in our genetic blueprints which set us apart others. These tiny variations determine both the effect nutrients have on our bodies and how we metabolise the food that we eat. Nutritional researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that what we eat directly determines our genetic expression. It can predict chronic disease risk, rate of aging, quality of life and even mortality. For instance, a diet predominated by processed foods and laden with sugars, hydrogenated fats and refined carbohydrates has been shown to promote metabolic oxidation, systemic inflammation and lowered immune response that opens the door for heart disease, diabetes, dementia, stroke and many forms of cancer—while one rich in healthy, nutritious, wholesome foods is proven to actually do just the opposite.

Personalized nutrition directly hinges on this two-way relationship between nutrients and genes. On the one hand, the nutrients we consume can affect the way our genes are expressed; on the other, our genes are able to influence how our bodies respond to these nutrients.

Folate is a great example of how the food we eat can affect our genes. Folate is produced from folic acid – an essential form of vitamin B9 found in green vegetables such as broccoli and brussel sprouts. It is needed by the body to make DNA, and deficiency in this nutrient has been connected to a higher risk of developing cancer (low folate levels lead to changes in the DNA strands which make them more susceptible to breaking).

As folate is vital for DNA synthesis, it also plays an important role during fetal development when cell division and growth are at their peak. Specifically, folate ensures that the spinal cord of the baby develops properly. It is so crucial to this process that women are strongly advised to take folic acid supplements before and during pregnancy.

The goal for Nutrigenomic scientists is to unravel this complex interaction so that tailored diets can be developed which complement a person's unique genetic profile. Not only will this optimize the health of the individual, but it may also work on a larger scale to help prevent society-wide diseases as well.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

Despite the increase in organic farming, breakthroughs in Nutrigenomics, and other shifts in the way that we think about, produce and eat our food, the fact remains that we as society still face real and daunting challenges.

In "The Omnivore’s Dilemma” A Natural History of Four Meals", a national bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winning author Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us -- whether industrial or organic, alternative or processed -- Pollan develops a powerful portrait of the American way of eating, and digs deep into the philosophy of “we are what we eat.”

Pollan outlines how Big Argo and Wall Street have proven to be the source of many of the problems we face today, including large scale industrial farming, subsidies, GMOs, misleading labels, and many of the other issues that need to change. But change requires transparency, and that is exact what we lack.

Pollan explains, “Much of our food system depends on our not knowing much about it, beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner; cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring-to the carelessness of both producers and consumers that characterizes our economy today. Of course, the global economy couldn't very well function without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. This is why the American food industry and its international counterparts fight to keep their products from telling even the simplest stories-"dolphin safe," "humanely slaughtered," etc.--about how they were produced. The more values-and not just "value"-will inform their purchasing decisions.”

And those same values that influence the production and commence behind the food that we purchase are equally reflected in choices of foods that we eat. There is no doubt that we are what we eat, and we take on the very energy of the food that we eat as well. Whether that wholesome, organic, nurturing, life sustaining –or not—depends greatly on our values and our own level of consciousness.

Pollan elaborates:

“How and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world--and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life afford quite as much satisfaction.”

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Copyright© Written by Marina Rose
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Marina Rose is the founder and developer of QDNA^®, Quantum DNA Acceleration^®, a revolutionary new technique for quantum growth in life and business. QDNA^® uses the latest cutting edge science in Neuroplasticity and DNA Reprogramming to develop plans of action that activate solutions for you and your business needs. It compounds Quantum Field principles, Positive Psychology, and Epigenetics, in a powerful new technique to assist you to achieve desired results. Accelerate your life and business now.

This article was written and appears as part of the blog series The Magnificent Human Experience^™ | Explorations of Consciousness And The Human Body.

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