Your kids Are What You Eat: A look Into The Science of Epigenetics

After reading about epigenetics I have come to the conclusion that the saying "you are what you eat" can have more permanent and significant impacts on a person's future and even the future of their offspring than once thought.

I was given a cursory introduction to epigenetics in my introductory biology course in which the main conclusion was that certain environmental modifications to DNA cause changes in the expression of genes. While this explanation is essentially accurate, upon reading John Cloud's article in TIME magazine, "Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny," I feel that the explanation I received was devoid of the potential significance of epigenetics on our lives.

To further invesitgate the topic of epigenetics, I watched the above NOVA video which can be found in higher quality on PBS's website. This video discusses a research study on mice possessing the agouti gene which causes a yellow coat and a propensity for obesity and diabetes in mice. When pregnant mice possessing this gene were fed diets high in vitamin B, which acts as a methyl donor, their offspring where much less likely to have the agouti gene expressed than if they were not given these vitamins. 

The example of the agouti mice is just but one example of how our decisions can affect our own health and the health of our offspring. It has been found that some epigenetic changes can be passed down through several generations such as in a study where people who overate during periods in their adolescence had grandchildren exhibiting much shorter lifespans. 

As science progresses and we learn more about epigenetics, I would expect this to have an impact on how cultures view health. More blame could potentially be placed on the parents of children with health problems. The idea that a mother could have done more to prevent her child's illness such as by taking better care of herself while pregnant or better regulating the diet of her child would likely become all the more prevalent. Nevertheless, studying epigenetics will be extremely beneficial if it allows us to find better ways to prevent and treat diseases like cancer. It will be interesting to see how great of an impact the study of epigenetics has on both culture and technology.