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We are headed into the warm months, which are the height of colorful food variety. After the heavy topic on genetics in my last newsletter, I thought we’d take on some lighter fare! Here’s some info on what you actually get out of those amazingly delicious fresh fruits and veggies, and be sure to check out my Coffman family approved recipes to help you use them! Happy summer, y’all! Lush, leafy plants grow heavy with their flowers and fruits as they reach toward the summer sun’s life-giving rays. Small community farmers across the country glory in the beautiful rainbow of colors reflected in the produce they grow in these warmer months, including red radishes, orange carrots, yellow corn, green basil, white onions, and blueberries. Many of these seasonal foods are available at local farms and markets — and pro tip: the color of the fruit or vegetable we eat is a clue to the nutrition found inside of it! This is great news as we shape our food choices to match the health we want to cultivate. The CDC reports that an estimated 129 million people in the U.S. live with pre-existing health conditions and chronic illness, like heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes. Even more of us live with niggling issues we may not think of as related to our physical health, like constipation or diarrhea, brain fog, or low grade anxiety. Fresh fruits and vegetables can help prevent and improve both the chronic diseases and the less obvious health issues. They also support our immune systems against viruses and bacteria. In fact, when we eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs, we consume nutrients that our bodies need to survive: vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, and water. All of these nutrients give us energy, run our cells, and build our bodies so that we can move, think, work, play, and even manage our emotions. When we don’t have enough, our bodies don’t work well, we become low on energy, and we’re more likely to get sick. If you want a deeper dive into eating nutrient dense foods, read this past CIN newsletter. Snacking on Sunshine So where do the vivid colors in our produce come from? The answer lies in phytonutrients (‘phyto’ like Fido, but with a ‘t’), a part of the plant that fights off bugs and diseases while interacting with the sun to generate color. Phytonutrients are responsible for the red found in strawberries, the green in broccoli, and even the brown and white in cauliflower, onions, and mushrooms. While there’s still a lot about phytonutrients that we don’t know, research clearly shows that they are invaluable to keeping us healthy and often to helping us heal when we’re sick. Here’s what you need to know:
Your Summer Cheat Sheet Click through the slideshow below to learn how each color of the rainbow directly supports your good health! Remember: the more vegetables, fruit, herbs, and spices you eat, the healthier you are likely to be! Be sure to download your (FREE)! "Eat the Rainbow" Guide! A handy printable guide that clearly identifies the benefits of each color group so that you can choose the ingredients to create vibrant, delicious, and nutrient-packed meals. Download it now!
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We each have an individual genetic blueprint. Among things like defining our hair color and height, our genes also determine how we interact with specific nutrients from our food. Nutrients inform how many of our biochemical pathways function, so how we are designed to use these nutrients is really important to the way our bodies work. We study how our genes use nutrients and how nutrients, in turn, run our biochemical engines in the sciences of nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, and epigenetics. Hundreds of research papers and whole books are written on this topic, and obviously I can’t go that deep here. Before we get started with the MTHFR gene, let’s have some basic science. You’ll remember from high school chemistry that genes are made of two parts, called alleles. Together they produce a molecule called an enzyme (click here for a definition). Enzymes are where many genes are designed by nature to interact with nutrients from our food, like vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Enzymes + nutrients are involved with making mood chemicals, suppressing tumor growth, reducing oxidation and inflammation, and repairing DNA (and thousands of other things!). Put your two pointer fingers together. Bend one so it’s short and the other stays long. Now bend both. The science term for one “short” allele is “heterozygous.” The term when both are “short” is “homozygous.” If one or both alleles is “short,” then the gene can’t produce as much of its enzyme. Fewer enzymes means there’s less of it to do whatever the enzyme does in the cell. When a gene is limited like this, it’s called a “variant,” because its function varies from the norm. Each gene’s enzyme serves a longer biochemical pathway. These pathways, though, are also shaped by many other inputs, from enzymes produced by other genes, to nutritional status, to lifestyle factors, and other influences. In other words, an isolated individual gene variant is very rarely the silver bullet to a disease state, whether mental or physical. MTHFR Gene (Not what it sounds like!) Why am I picking on this gene specifically? Because it is the best studied nutrient-based gene in the mental health community for its role in depression, and because it is so often treated with a high dose prescribed supplement in isolation from the pathways it serves. MTHFR means “methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase.” That’s certainly a mouthful! Looking at that big word, you might pick up on the word “folate,” and that would give you a useful clue. This gene is involved with taking folate (vitamin B9) from our food, activating it, and using it in our bodies to trigger an important process called “methylation.” More on this below. When an MTHFR gene has a variant, less activated folate is available. That can interfere with certain pathways, often because it messes with the methylation cycle. It is one component that can contribute meaningfully to vascular diseases, blood clots, stroke, miscarriage, certain cancers, and, yes, mood and depression. Too little folate available from a mom to a developing fetus is the primary factor for neural tube defects (e.g. spina bifida). That’s a process where folate has no substitute. When there is an MTHFR variant, there is an increased risk of not having enough activated folate to start the methylation cycle. What’s the Methylation Cycle? Remember that activated folate created by the MTHFR gene kicks off the methylation process. This is how the methylation cycle makes changes in the body: A methyl group (a carbon with three hydrogens attached) is kind of a hot potato that’s passed along. This gives the Methylation Cycle its name. Whenever it attaches to or detaches from a molecule, that molecule is changed. Here are some of the actions of these changed molecules:
So MTHFR Variants Are a Big Deal! So, yeah. Adequate folate and methyl groups are definitely a big deal. But MTHFR is still just one gene. There is so much else that has to happen. There are a bunch of places along our biochemical pathways that can contribute to these mental and physical health (especially vascular) issues. So Many Genes, So Little Time Remember that we’re talking about interconnected pathways. Think of going for a hike. You get your key, drive your car along several roads, arrive at the park, walk to the trail, then take the hike. Everything has to go right. If you can’t find your car key, the car doesn’t work, or the trail is closed, you won’t be hiking. The same is true for the processes that make and metabolize (break down) mood chemicals and contribute to vascular health status. There are many steps and at least 8 major genes involved just in the folate and methylation pathways, not just MTHFR (even if it is a big deal). They are all modifying the biochemistry and shifting what the other ones are doing. Any of them can have a gene variant that makes them work differently, and several of them indirectly or directly affect mood. That’s before we have even factored in the effects of other mood busters, like thyroid pathways, blood glucose metabolism, or depleted nutrients. The point is that most of the time we can’t choose just one gene, no matter how important it is, and tag it as the source for a health condition. Why I Don’t Like Long Term Methylated Folate Supplements Many psychiatrists and doctors focus on the individual, isolated MTHFR gene, not the intertwined, complex nutritional pathways. They prescribe a high dose methylated folate nutritional supplement to folks suffering from depression without looking at the rest of the biochemistry or other factors. Many psychiatrists prescribe Deplin, which is a high dose methylated folate, at 7.5 or 15 mg - milligrams. Note that a high dose is anything above 400 mcg - micrograms, so these are very high doses indeed. The idea is that high doses will solve the issue of an individual’s genetic limitation to make active folate and have enough methyl groups. It’s a silver bullet approach, but it’s usually not that simple. Be aware that high dose methylated folate can also be bought over the counter, and even some nutritionists don’t understand the risks. Too much folate or too many methyl groups can have cascading mood effects in the body. For example, too many methyl groups can sometimes trigger something that looks a whole lot like anxiety or mania. Also, regardless of genetic status, high dose methylated folate taken over the long term is firmly associated with a notable increased risk of colon cancer, and possibly other cancers. It can be a super useful tool in the short term while we bring these pathways up to speed, but it should not be a forever supplement, especially at high doses (800 mcg or above). If a folate supplement is useful for longer, there are ones that don’t carry this risk. But here’s the deal, there’s a whole super safe Methylation Food Plan + lifestyle practices available to use to support not just that one gene, but all the associated pathways. Our biochemistry is like a car engine. We can’t make sure it runs well without looking at all the parts. Bottom Line The bottom line is that there are many genes that interact with the nutrients we eat in food, and our food has an impact on how our genes work. We are complex creatures, and a single variation in how we are designed is unlikely to be the silver bullet answer to our mental or physical health condition. A rounded, well-informed approach will lead to us feeling our best. Interested in learning about your own nutrigenetic/nutrigenomic makeup? Consider taking the 3x4 Genetics test. It’s an easy cheek swab, and I can help you interpret and apply the results. When you register your kit, enter my practitioner code: MCOF001. Then make an appointment with me!
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AuthorI am Mary Virginia Coffman (I go by “Mary Virginia”), a clinical nutritionist who focuses on mental health, digestive health, metabolic health, and nervous system regulation. My unique combination of clinical interventions, education, and coaching will help you feel well in body, mind, and spirit. Archives
October 2024
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