Food Science and Technology

Diet and Genetics

Genetics play an interesting role in body composition, particularly when it comes to body fat. The human body is designed to store fat in particular places, depending on gender, age, and of course, your family genes. Genes will determine women will carry this body fat around the hips and thighs as opposed to storing fat in the upper body. Men, tend to carry fat in the abdomen but can also carry fat in other places; the storage of fat, regardless of gender, can play a significant role in influencing well-being risks.

Nutritional factors may have played a role in human evolution by selecting for certain genotypes. Thus, periods of starvation may have favoured genotypes predisposing to hyperlipidaemia and noninsulin-dependent diabetes by allowing more ready mobilization of lipids and glucose that provided a slightly better chance of survival and reproduction. A similar reasoning applies to genotypes predisposing to obesity. Such a hypothesis would explain the relatively high frequency of these traits.