Nutrition is a complex process that allows the cycle of life, which supplies substances that act as sources of energy in the cell structure and the control of metabolism, and function to maintain homeostasis. According to some authors, such as Bourges, the nutritional phenotype is a result of interaction between the genetic information of each person, physical, biological, emotional and social development. Environmental factors involved in the homeostasis of organisms are several, notably the diet which influences the incidence of common chronic diseases.
Your daily diet has thousands of biologically active substances, many of which may have potential health benefits and in some cases, may even be injurious. In this way, health or sickness depends on the interaction between genetics and environment, which gives rise to phenotypes. In this regard, numerous epidemiological studies confirm the existence of some association between dietary intake and the incidence and severity of chronic diseases, although it is not easy to distinguish which are the bioactive molecules from food exercising certain beneficial actions. As an example of the complexity a of “simple” food, there are hundreds of compounds in olive oil, whose variety and concentration of fatty acids, triglycerides, sterols, sterol esters and tocopherols provide a wide range of functions, since these components have different cellular destinations. The components of the diet could alter the genomic expression in a direct or indirect way.
Nutrigenetics is an applied science that is marked by the paradigms of nutritional pharmacology in relation to polymorphisms and clinical experience. Just as pharmacogenetics seeks to improve the design of drugs, according to the influence of genetic variations in the metabolism of xenobiotics and drug targets in the patient, nutrigenetics offers customized nutrition according to the genetic constitution of consumers, taking into account the knowledge of genetic variations that affect the metabolism of nutrients and their targets. Ultimately, nutrigenetics refers to the analysis of genetic variation between individuals and their clinical response to specific nutrients. An example would be individuals with different values of serum cholesterol and blood pressure by genetic variations, even with standard diet.
Nutrigenomics is a branch of genomics that seeks to provide an understanding of molecules (genes) in the dietary components that contribute to health by altering the expression and / or structures, according to the individuals genetic makeup. For example, nutrigenomics explores the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids on gene expression of its oxidation and utilization of energy.