The global nutrigenomics market size is expected to reach USD 850.86 million by 2025. Registering a CAGR of 16.48%. Obesity is the biggest segment for nutrigenomics and is projected to account for 38% of the total industry by 2025.

Nutrigenomics is the study of molecular relationships between nutritional stimuli and the response of the genes. It opens a window in our understanding of how nutrition influences metabolic pathways and homeostatic control.

The early stages of diet-related diseases are closely related to the poor regulation of metabolic pathways. Nutrigenomics premise is that, since everyone has a unique genome, their response to environmental factors will also be different.

The differences in the genome type when compared from one human to another. Maybe only 1% of every 1000 base pairs of a nucleotide sequence of human DNA.

According to the Indian Horticulture Journal, even a difference of 0.1% of the 3 billion base pairs, that make up the human genome. Will equate to 3 million base pairs with genetic variation between two people.

Generally, the variation between two individuals is found in a single base pair called a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)

For clinicians to understand, how complex diet-related diseases impact humans. Researchers must identify the affected SNP out of 10 million common SNP's. 

The expression of genetic information, within humans, is highly dependent and regulated, by nutrients, micronutrients, and phytochemicals found in food.

Genes are turned on and off by metabolic signals sent to the nucleus from internal stimuli, for example, hormones. And environmental stimuli, such as nutrients. Hence unbalanced diets can alter nutrient-gene interactions, increasing the risk of the development of chronic diseases.

The Difference Between Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics

Nutrigenomics differs from nutrigenetics in that in the field of nutrigenomics everyone is viewed as genetically different. With unique responses to internal and external stimuli.

Nutrigenetics, on the other hand, treats all humans as genetically identical. Negating to acknowledge the notion, that some individuals require more or less of specific nutrients.

Nutrigenomics studies the influence of the nutrients on gene expression, nutrigenetics studies the influence of the genetic variations in the body promoted by the nutrients.

Top 25 obese countries

Why Obesity Occurs

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO). In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of these over 650 million adults were obese.

Obesity results from the imbalance between the energy intake (EI) and the Total Energy Expenditure (TEE), associated with alternations of many metabolic pathways. 

This imbalance may lead over time to an accumulation of excess fat and system level dysfunction of weight control.  If left uncontrolled, obesity may lead to the development of other diseases.

It is considered the primary risk factor of type-2 diabetes, as 61% of obese people will develop this disease in their lifetime.

The main driver of obesity in individuals and populations where obesity has taken hold.  Are “obesogenic” environments, this is a confluence, of surroundings, opportunities or conditions of life that promote obesity    

Significant discoveries in the role the human genome plays in nutrition led to the creation of a new discipline in biology. Nutritional Genomic or Molecular Nutrition. 

Aimed at the delivery of better treatment and disease prevention through personalised diets.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines the word “Nutrition” in 1948, as “a set of processes, by which living beings incorporate, modify and remove substances from outside”.   

There are several genes associated with obese phenotypes. Phenotypes are a set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment. Hence individuals with a predisposition to be obese, placed in an obesogenic environment. Maybe more inclined to become obese.

Personalised Diet & Health Optimisation

The optimisation of health through the personalisation of diets is a powerful approach to uncover the complex relationship between nutritional molecules, genetic polymorphism and the biological system.  Genetic polymorphism relates to the multiple forms of a gene that can exist.

Information regarding the interaction between food, nutrient intake and inherited polymorphism may play a useful role in;

1)       Identifying susceptible populations to the development of diseases related to food such as cancer, type2 diabetes

2)       Assist in establishing the causality of food and nutrient associations

3)       Aid in distinguishing causal components of complex dietary mixtures

4)      Provides the basis for gene-based screening tests.

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