One of the basic ideas that we’re trying to advance with EpiGaia is that our bodies are programmed to benefit from proper nutrition - and that epigenetic nutrition can provide many of the specific substances our bodies need most. The importance behind this is clear: when your body doesn’t get what it needs, your health declines.

The Wall Street Journal had a great article on Tuesday about paying attention to external signs your body provides to signal internal problems. It is so important to pay attention to what goes on with your body: you know what is normal and what isn’t, and your body will show signs when things aren’t functioning properly.

One key takeaway from this article is the need to pay attention to preventive care.

With major changes to the nation’s health-care system looming, it may be more important than ever for people to keep track of their own physical health. Primary-care doctors could become increasingly pressed for time, and long-term doctor-patient relationships may be harder to sustain. The growing emphasis on preventive medicine may also place more responsibility on patients to head off illnesses before they become serious.

Proper nutrition is an essential part of maintaining good health and preventing diseases such as diabetes and other ailments. Getting the nutrients your body needs can help keep your immune system strong and ensure proper functioning of your stomach, liver, kidneys and other organs.

So, like the Journal says, we should “be vigilant for anything new or unusual” about our bodies. And if we really want to be ahead of the game, we should make sure our body’s genetic nutrition needs are being met.

The Dr. Mom Online blog had a great post recently about how to make nutritional choices. The author discussed how important proper nutrition is for good health, sufficient energy, clear thinking/learning ability, resistance to injury and disease, and all other aspects of living. Because, when you think about it, the quality of nutrition determines how well our body can function.

One point that was made is that to achieve proper nutrition, we need to believe 100% in the lifestyle changes we’re trying to make - and REALLY want them, not just trick ourselves into it. A great example:

If we say to ourselves, “Twinkies aren’t any good for me and they’re making me fat… I really need to stop eating those”, but our true belief is, “But, maaaaaan… I sure do LOVE Twinkies!! I love the way they taste, I love how happy they make me while I’m eating them, I look forward to my Twinkie snack all day long!!” It’s unlikely we’ll be giving up Twinkies anytime soon… we’ve still got too much pleasure attached to the idea of a Twinkie!

Our belief is that the Twinkies are GOOD, therefore our behavior (eating them) is in alignment with that belief.

There’s an even more-important point made towards the middle of the post. It’s so sensible, and so obvious, yet so many people either disregard this fundamental fact or don’t think about it:

A food choice is either congruent with our innate genetic requirements (and moves us toward health), or it’s not.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Think about that when you’re meal-planning…or at grocery store…or the gas station, trying to decide between Zingers and Ding-Dongs. If it’s not in line with your genetic needs, it’s not healthy.

Visit the full post here for some great information and insight.

A few days ago EpiGaia issued a press release highlighting its impressive ORAC test results. The release was subtitled, “EpiGaia’s Antioxidant Power Out Rates Most Popular Health Drinks” - because EpiGaia’s ORAC value was:

… 16,450 units per daily serving (50 grams) - three times as powerful as pomegranate juice (ORAC of 5,250) and almost two times more powerful than Acai berry juice (ORAC of 9,200). It is over ten times more potent than juice made from Noni berries (ORAC of 856), Goji berries (ORAC of 706), and blueberries (ORAC of 1,600).

A brief explanation of ORAC:
ORAC is an acronym for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity - basically, how well a food or supplement performs as an antioxidant. Foods and nutrients with a higher ORAC score are believed to be more effective at eliminating oxygen free radicals in the body, promoting improved health and function of the body.

So, EpiGaia’s high ORAC value - higher than several other nutrition/health drinks and juices - looks pretty impressive. One possible explanation comes from Guohua (Howard) Cao, a physician and chemist who developed the ORAC assay: “It may be that combinations of nutrients found in foods have greater protective effects than each nutrient taken alone.”

If you’d like to read the press release, it’s available here. For more information about EpiGaia, be sure to visit the EpiGaia website and download the free report, “Epigenetic Nutrition: Attaining Natural Good Health through Ancestral Sourced Whole Foods.”

Scientific research confirming and clarifying the importance of epigenetics in biology - specifically, the passing on of traits to offspring - just keeps coming. A recent study published in The Quarterly Review of Biology (University of Chicago) highlighted over 100 examples of specific animal traits passed to offspring via non-DNA inheritance.

A Current.com post includes selected examples from the study, as well as commentary on the conclusions. Here are a few examples:

Fruit flies exposed to certain chemicals transmit changes—bristly outgrowths on their eyes—down at least 13 generations.

Exposing a pregnant rat to a chemical that alters reproductive hormones leads to generations of sick offspring.

People malnourished in adolescence transmit higher rates of heart disease and diabetes to their children and grandchildren.

In these and 97 other cases the changes in subsequent generations were not from changes in DNA but from epigenetics.

According to the Current.com post, the biggest implication of this new research is that “All the stuff we’re synthesizing and creating from plastics to nanomaterials is going to live in our bodies and take its toll down the generations for a long, long time.”

The “glass-half-full’ flipside to this opinion is epigenetic nutrition: we can identify nutrients and specific foods, used by our ancestors, that meet the needs of our present-day bodies.

Most articles or blogs that discuss “healthy eating” are geared more towards the types of food, necessary nutrients, and different diets or meal plans. But one article on Examiner.com (in the Sacramento edition, by Mykim Tran) takes things one step further: she actually discusses the mechanics of eating.

Mykim suggests eating in moderation, chewing slowly, and not watching television while eating. According to her article, we don’t eat just to survive anymore - we eat for enjoyment, or, conversely, if we’re depressed- and often we eat much more than is necessary.

She suggests chewing more slowly to “taste more of the sweet and delicious favors of the food.” Plus, eating slowly and chewing thoroughly gives the stomach time to realize that it’s full, and helps it digest food more efficiently.

Mykim also recommends not eating while watching television, because “when you watch television, you are focusing on the television and not on what and how much food you are consuming.”

These are some good points to consider - but make sure you’re eating the right foods and paying attention to proper nutrition while you implement these tips.

Back on May 2, we published a post titled “Swine Flu Concerns: Boost Immunity with Genetic Nutrition.” That post discussed how strengthening the immune system through proper nutrition could help people stay more healthy. As it turns out, the CDC has conducted tests that suggest people age 60 and over have increased immunity to the H1N1 virus.

According to a story by the Associated Press today, the new H1N1 virus seems to affect the young at a much higher rate than the elderly - which is in direct contrast to common seasonal flus, that have a much more profound effect on the very old.

Several theories have been presented as to why the new H1N1 seems to not affect the elderly as much. The most common is that flu viruses prior to 1957 affected patients’ immune systems in a similar way to H1N1, which could account for the apparently-increased immunity among the elderly. But scientists and doctors urge older people to “take the same precautions as everyone else.”

The bottom line of the story:

Scientists think it’s because older people have been exposed to other viruses in the past that are more similar to swine flu than more recent seasonal flus.

But the results come from complicated lab work and calculations, and it’s not yet clear how safe older people actually are from the new infection, federal officials said.

“We can’t say,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So older people are advised to take the same precautions as their children and grandchildren.

As part of these precautions, it’s always a good idea to make sure your diet has a full compliment of healthy nutrients designed to boost your immune system.

The Associated Press recently published this list of nutrition tips for people with cancer. These are excellent guidelines to keep in mind, and with cancer being so prevalent, odds are most people will have a friend or loved one who could benefit.

A good thing about these tips is that they include several suggestions for dealing with nausea, diarrhea, and other side affects from treatment or the disease itself. Here are a few selections from the list:

- Cancer patients tend to need more protein than healthy people. Peanut butter crackers, yogurt and fruit, a hard-boiled egg and piece of toast all are good mini-meals.

- White, bland foods tend to help with nausea, such as Cream of Wheat, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese.

- Odors often worsen nausea, and foods served at room temperature rather than warm tend to have milder odors.

- Fresh ginger about 30 minutes before eating also can take the edge off nausea, but not ginger flavoring common in many sodas. A study published last week found ginger capsules work, too.

The most important tip in the list is a reminder to tell your doctor about any over-the-counter dietary supplements you may be taking - including EpiGaia. It’s important to consult your physician whenever you are considering taking a supplement, but it is vital for cancer patients due to possible “dangerous interactions with anticancer medications.”

The complete list is available here: if you or someone you know has cancer, take advantage of these tips to make sure you’re getting the nutrition you need.

The LA Times reports that last week, “[t]wo federal lawmakers have introduced legislation to require fast-food and other chain restaurants to post calories on menu boards and food display tags.” This bill, known as the MEAL Act (Menu Education and Labeling Act), is designed to “Help consumers make more informed choices.”

The article mentions that the restaurant industry has proposed an alternative bill, known as the LEAN Act (Labeling Education and Nutrition Act), which would only require chains with more than 20 units to implement the new labeling requirements. It would also preempt future state or local regulatory measures.

Both measures are supposed to help consumers make healthier choices. But calling for improved labeling of restaurant food ignores the basic fact that humans aren’t designed to eat burgers and fries. As Dr. Donald Coffey of The Johns Hopkins University puts it, “we were not biologically selected by the evolution process to eat the way we do today, and the damage is manifested.” One clear manifestation is the fact that two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight.

Rather than picking the 500-calorie burger instead of the 750-calorie one, many consumers would be better off focusing on the nutrition their bodies - or, drilling down a little further, their genes - really need. That’s the whole idea behind epigenetic nutrition: helping people obtain the nutrition their genes are designed for.