Essay Sample about Nutritional Phenotype

Nutritional phenotype is affected by 4 different key factors\. The factors are metabolic phenotype, cultural impacts, the food chain, and the impact of genetic and epigenetic on how food is digested and consumed. These factors have an adverse impact on indigenous populations.

One of the main focuses on metabolic phenotype is centered around the impact of dietary intake. This follows the path that if there is a point in crucial development where a grandparent generation could impact the phenotype and digestive ability down to the grandchild.  One factor of metabolic phenotype is the hormone cycle as many hormones are used in your body for signaling and other important factors. Especially within the United States, animals are given hormones to increase production. This changing of hormones within something the is commonly part of the diet caused a hormone shift within people who are consuming these products. An example of this would be cows receiving hormones to produce more milk. As kids are encouraged to consume milk it was noticed an increase in girls receiving their period earlier due to the increase in hormones within the food that they were eating. There is a natural fluctuation of hormones within our bodies but this is an example of how external factor impacts the body with effects that were not originally considered. 

A portion of our diet is affected by the culture that we are surrounded by. There are smaller changes in diet such as changes in spices. Although there are also larger changes in diet that affect people such as populations who focus on more grains as that is what they have access to while another diet consists more of poultry. Culture impacts how we see the world and what we have access to when it comes to preparing food. There are also impacts of culturally accepted food for example many people in the US have chosen to adopt a vegetarian diet. The choice of the vegetarian diet is culturally acceptable within us but explaining to a different culture that it is not an allergy but a lifestyle choice is not something that would be seen as acceptable or even practical in another culture. Part of this impact is due to the fact that due to modernizations access to a wide variety of food in a smaller place is easier than it is in other countries. Culture also affects how people see food, as it has become something that people have either made fancier and something to enjoy rather than just something that is necessary to consume for survival. This shift in how food is viewed has shaped and changed how food is prepared and consumed. 

Food chains also impact the nutritional phenotype. With the effects of modernization, the food chains have changed and developed. A lot of the meat and animal products are mass-produced on farms. This specialization of jobs has allowed for more surplus. Many people do not know how to produce their own food and are able to access it at a grocery store. This change in the supply chain and processing of food means that people do not know the exact process that a lot of their food is being produced. There are also foods that are processed and include ingredients that the average person when reading a label cannot identify what they are eating exactly. This access to processed food means that although people have access to food they don’t necessarily have access to good nutrition. 

Another way your body is affected by nutrional phenotype is through genetics and epigenetics. A large part of how we process food is up to the genetic information that we have within our bodies. They are healthy bacteria that live within our body and aid in digestion within our body and are affected by the different food that we eat. It is unknown whether food sensitivity is passed down by genetics but could be affected by the epigenetics that people have/. An example of a genetic trait passed down is the ability to digest lactose as an adult. Many people have found that although they have no problem digesting milk as a child at one point they age out of this ability and are unable to properly digest milk as an adult. There is information that points to this trait being passed down through different generations in some of the cases. Some people develop lactose intolerance because they stop consuming products that contain lactose for a period of time and due to pruning and the body not actively using the ability it can be lost. The epigenetics are impacts of our environment and diet on our ability to digest and process nutrients. This can be an explanation for some allergies as they change as you age, there are children who have allergies that they grow out of and then most people develop new allergies around their 20s. The full scope of epigenetics effects is unknown but it’s definitely a contributing factor in how humans get nutrition. 

Indigenous populations are adversely impacted by the factors of nutritional phenotype. Indigenous populations have many traditional practices involving the food that they eat. As modernization occurs and the people were affected by other populations using resources the indigenous populations have had to shift over to more easily accessible food. This shift of nutrition can negatively affect these populations as their diets that were based on healthy natural foods found within their area the shift has been to more processed food that doesn’t have the same nutritional benefits. An example of this would be overfishing affecting the amount of fish in the streams where indigenous populations do their fishing. Thus not being able to access nutrients within the fish they must change their diets to go to a grocery store to get food. Modernization has affected the culture and food chain of indigenous populations. They are more affected by climate change and the farming effects. With this shift away from historical practices there has been health issues related to lack of nutrition.