Chapter 17 – The Biology of Nutrients: Genetic and Molecular Principles*

The intake of nutrients for growth, repair, and energy is an age-old, intuitive concept of nutrition regarding the role of nutrients in the body. Unlike treating diseases with drug interventions, treating adverse nutritional consequences (e.g., obesity) with nutritional intervention has remained elusive. This is, at least in part, due to the acute nature of the adverse effects of disease as opposed to the chronic nature of the adverse effects of inappropriate nutritional practices. Advances in genomic technologies have made the concept of individualized nutrition an achievable goal just like the concept of individualized medicine. The fine-tuning of nutritional intervention will require a thorough understanding of nutrient-mediated effects at the molecular level.