Guest Features

with guest, Nerissa Oden

A frequent guest on ABC-TV’s “Dr. Oz,” says that DNA controls about 5% of an individual’s health while environment controls the other 95% of it. Food and diet are part of our environment. Food like other environmental factors like stress, exercise and pollution influence how our DNA gets expressed. Epigenetics is the study of how genome material turns ON and OFF areas of the DNA that we each inherited.

In layman’s terms, if your family history includes cancer or diabetes, food allergies or (fill in the blank), then your dietary habits can trigger or activate the DNA’s responsible disease, even postpone or deny the DNA expression for disease from being turned on in the first place.

Understanding the importance of environment on our health, it becomes easier to understand that the main causes that can lead to sensitivity to one or more foods are: poor digestion, gut flora imbalances, toxicity, overexposure, suppressed immune system and genetically modified foods. Leaving your genes to play a very small role like the 5% figure supplied by Dr. Mark Hyman.

Poor digestion can be created by a physical impairment or damage, certain medications, and an imbalance in your natural gut flora. Gut flora imbalances can be caused by certain medications like antibiotics, parasites, and even overexposure to fermented foods. Toxicity can be caused by excessive environmental exposures, as well as, your body’s inability to expel toxins like an impaired liver, gallbladder, or kidney. Overexposure refers to eating the same food or food ingredients too frequently which can result in a ‘build up’ of irritation, usually inflammation. Suppressed immune systems can be created by certain medications, nutritional deficiencies, viruses and other bacteria. GMO foods contain new proteins that humans have never encountered so it stands to reason that many people will react negatively to these new proteins.

Eliminating a food sensitivity from your diet, skin care and supplements will result in fast relief from physical symptoms of sensitivity. Fixing the root cause for the sensitivities will bring about more health improvements, many of which may be undetectable except through laboratory testing.

Read more from Nerissa Oden at FoodPowers.com