Epigenetics and Nutrigenomics are gaining traction within the professional nutrition community. NYCNEN, a professional group of nutrition educators in NYC, asked me to present at their half day conference, “Not Your Mom’s Genes,” at Teachers College Columbia University held in January.
It was an honor to be in the company of the other speakers. Dr. Fabien Delahaye, PhD, Assistant Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, began the meeting by sharing his research in his talk, “Epigenetics 101: What research has taught us about environment and gene expression.”
Also on the program was Malki Miller, MS, RD, CNSC, neonatal/pediatric dietitian at Maimonides Infants’ and Children’s Hospital where she is involved in nutrition support for preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Her work involves nutrition strategies for better outcomes during childhood and later in life, as it relates to epigenetics (gene expression).
My presentation focused on Nutrigenomics in the patient care process. Using genes involved with methylation (MTHFR and COMT) as examples, I discussed how to integrate genetic clues in a nutrition assessment and mapped out a variety of nutrition strategies.
