The idea of taking calcium for your bones is fairly straightforward, as your bones are made of calcium.  The new gene science is opening up a different view of nutrition, one in which various nutrients can prevent gene weaknesses from manifesting as disease.  A new study shows that high calcium intake offsets gene weaknesses that not only lead to weight gain but to the full metabolic syndrome.

The metabolic syndrome (elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and abdominal weight gain) is now an epidemic in America.  Some of us have gene weaknesses that make it more likely for this collection of problems to occur when we eat too much food.  This new study showed that in both men and women, high calcium intake could prevent the gene weaknesses from manifesting, thereby reducing the risk for developing metabolic syndrome.

The entire field of epigentics is one of the most exciting new frontiers of nutritional science.  It determines how genes are turned on and off, as compared to an actual problem with the DNA.  It is clear that nutrition has a major impact on these gene settings.  Thus, if you can use nutrition to optimize a gene signal that supports health it can help to compensate for a weakness in that system.  This means we can use nutrition to offset gene-related disease risk – which is great news for everyone.

This study shows that higher calcium intake can encourage better gene signaling relating to your metabolism.  This is likely a key reason that calcium intake is associated with so many positive health benefits in addition to your bones.

Posted by Byron J Richards at 05:21 PM.

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