Everyone who has ever attempted to complete a successful diet plan will tell you that doing so can be very hard work indeed. Some are lucky enough to have a metabolism that makes the losing of weight fairly easy but for most of us who have tried to shed the pounds, things don’t always go to plan.
Clearly, sometimes efforts to the diet can fail due to the lack of willpower or a lack of access to the right food options however it is sensible to also dig a little deeper when it comes to selecting the right diet for you. After all, no two humans are the same and therefore following a standard diet may not be the wisest path to tread.
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What is a DNA Diet?
We are all different. Indeed some of us are completely different to others. Therefore a one-size fits all approach to dieting isn’t the most sensible approach to consider when it comes to looking to improve your physical state.
DNA diets are a way to use the details that make your personal DNA to influence the type of foods and diet you should follow.
There are as many as 100 aspects of your DNA that can influence your health, as well as your propensity for certain diseases. Your DNA sequence is specifically for you, it’s your very blueprint and it matters.
A DNA test will give you access to key information in relation to genetic variants that can be connected to obesity, allergies or a host of other key information that will point you in the right direction when it comes to your diet.
Why it Matters
On the whole, dieting can be problematic. Following the wrong diet can lead to a yo-yo effect that can end being more harm than the issues that led to you wishing to diet in the first place.
Those who have dieted a few times will often be saddened or even angered, by the fact that friends that they know have managed just fine with the same diet. Well the most likely reason is that the particular diet you are following may not be relevant for your body.
Picking the right diet, however you do so, is important. And a DNA diet is now a very common option to take, so much so that many now visit the leading DNA testing kit sites in order to secure the relevant information.
What now?
Getting a DNA test is now easier than it’s ever been. On the whole, when using the most trusted brands in the business, the process is easy, safe and very cost-effective and clearly the benefits are not solely in relation to working out a DNA diet.
The leaders in the field include the likes of Ancestry, MyHeritage and LivingDNA and a quick search online will help you to read about pros and cons of all the relevant providers.
The top brands in the DNA testing space offer a variant of a DNA diet test, sometimes referred to as Nutrition DNA testing (sometimes packaged as health and wellbeing tests), and what these offer is truly fascinating.
The tests that are run will tell you how the genetic variants present in your DNA can impact the way your body processes certain vitamins and minerals, which in turn will give you a much better idea of what food a successful diet should include.
These tests will look at different vitamin tests and these will give you insight into what your body is in most need of, and indeed what you should steer clear of.
These tests will also tell you about potential lactose intolerance, celiac disease risk and other hugely important factors that relate to potentially deadly allergies. So in many ways the tests themselves go far beyond diet and are in many ways crucial for your overall well being.
The power of information
So if it’s safe to assume that adopting a traditional diet, without taking into account individual factors that relate to you, are something of a shot in the dark, then it’s fair to say that being armed with the relevant information related to your DNA gives you a great push in the direction when it comes to your diet.
The scientific discipline of nutrigenomics is growing in credibility, the connecting of genes, nutrition and health is one that seems intuitive and far more reliable than the relatively low-evidence based option of sticking to a traditional diet plan that bears no relation to what makes you tick.
The angle of personalized diet plans are of course not new but up to recently these were based mainly on one on one discussions between a nutritionist and an individual and didn’t actually rely very heavily on scientific data.
The importance of DNA on your diet is hard to ignore. Even at its most basic level the information you glean from the DNA testing will inform you of important information relating to whether a low-carb diet will work for you, based on the genetic mapping.
Perhaps your DNA will point you in the direction of a low fat diet, due to cholesterol levels. As mentioned earlier, it will also give you key information related to food types you really must steer clear of. So in that way it’s more than just an instructional tool it’s information that could be of huge importance.
When you have the relevant information that relates to your own DNA then the additional benefit of a personalized diet based on that data will more likely succeed due in part to the knowledge you take from knowing it’s a diet based on you, on the DNA that you yourself are made of.
Of course there are a myriad of things to take into account when looking to correct or modify your diet and of course you should always consult a medical professional in any case.
Moving in the right direction
Strides made in the DNA testing field have opened many doors to us, for some this has led to a renewed interest in our ancestry, where we come from and what makes us who we are and using these services to help us become better, more healthier individuals is yet another unquestionable benefit to explore.