Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
The title of this article is very misleading, as Razib Khan has pointed out. A certain allele doesn't cause a culture to adopt a certain diet. A certain diet in affect causes an increase in the frequency of certain randomly occurring mutations. That's how natural selection and evolutionwork.
From the article:
"cultures from certain parts of India, Africa and Asia have eaten a mostly vegetarian diet for so long that they have evolved a genetic adaption that boosts their body’s ability to process certain fatty acids, according to the new study, which is published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. If these individuals stray from their veggie-based diets, they may be at a higher risk than other people for heart disease, colon cancer and additional health problems associated with increased inflammation, the scientists believe."
“With little animal food in the diet, the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids must be made metabolically” from ingested plant products, co-authors Tom Brenna and Kumar Kothapalli of Cornell University explained in a joint comment in a press release.
They continued that “the physiological demand” for these necessary fatty acids “in vegetarians is likely to have favored genetics that support efficient synthesis of these key metabolites. Changes in the dietary omega-6 to omega-3 balance may contribute to the increase in chronic disease seen in some developing countries.”
"Fish and meats can be sources of these fatty acids. In plants, omega-6 may be found in wheat germ and various vegetables, such as corn. Many veggies are high in omega-3, such as broccoli, squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale."
This is the actual paper:
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/09/molbev.msw049.long
I'm sure there are others, but the allele in question here is rs rs66698963.
"Analysis using 1000 Genomes Project data confirmed our observation, revealing a global I/I genotype of 70% in South Asians, of 53% in Africans, 29% in East Asians, and 17% in Europeans.
I don't think it's on the chip used at 23andme, or at least it didn't give a result for me.
From the article:
"cultures from certain parts of India, Africa and Asia have eaten a mostly vegetarian diet for so long that they have evolved a genetic adaption that boosts their body’s ability to process certain fatty acids, according to the new study, which is published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. If these individuals stray from their veggie-based diets, they may be at a higher risk than other people for heart disease, colon cancer and additional health problems associated with increased inflammation, the scientists believe."
“With little animal food in the diet, the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids must be made metabolically” from ingested plant products, co-authors Tom Brenna and Kumar Kothapalli of Cornell University explained in a joint comment in a press release.
They continued that “the physiological demand” for these necessary fatty acids “in vegetarians is likely to have favored genetics that support efficient synthesis of these key metabolites. Changes in the dietary omega-6 to omega-3 balance may contribute to the increase in chronic disease seen in some developing countries.”
"Fish and meats can be sources of these fatty acids. In plants, omega-6 may be found in wheat germ and various vegetables, such as corn. Many veggies are high in omega-3, such as broccoli, squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale."
This is the actual paper:
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/09/molbev.msw049.long
I'm sure there are others, but the allele in question here is rs rs66698963.
"Analysis using 1000 Genomes Project data confirmed our observation, revealing a global I/I genotype of 70% in South Asians, of 53% in Africans, 29% in East Asians, and 17% in Europeans.
I don't think it's on the chip used at 23andme, or at least it didn't give a result for me.