Question: Do environmental factors influence a person's epigenetic changes?

Hi tishan,

Yep. This is an area that is sparking a huge amount of interest because it is now known that diet and environment have a real influence on a person’s epigenetics. There is a whole new field of science called nutrigenomics – which combines genetics (and epigenetics) and nutrition.

One of the best examples of epigenetics being affected by diet is the queen bee. Did you know that the queen bee is genetically identical to all the worker bees? It is not until she eats royal jelly that changes her epigenetics and she develops into a queen.

Also, that is the reason why mothers take folate supplements when they are pregnant – so their babies epigenetic develops correctly.

We also know that there are certain foods that negatively affect the epigenetics of a person and might make them (or their children) more likely to develop diseases like diabetes later in life.

This is a great question and extremely topical. One of the problems though is that, there are lots of people who have a strong opinion about nutrition and what foods are good and bad for you and your genes, but we are really only scratching the surface to understand when we should be eating what, and how much to have a long healthy life.