Good nutrition is essential for every stage of your baby’s growth and development. But the efficiency with which your body metabolizes nutrients is partly determined by your genes, and common genetic variants can affect the metabolism of one-carbon nutrients that are critical for the development of your child’s brain and spinal cord. Genate Essential Prenatal Nutrition is a multivitamin formulated from academic research that provides women with a formulation optimized to support their baby’s cognitive development. It includes the one-carbon nutrients choline, betaine, methylfolate, and B vitamins that many women have trouble metabolizing and/or don’t get enough of in their diet.
DIET & NUTRITION
Genetic Pathways and Nutrition
March 18, 2023
Genetic metabolic pathways and nutrition are intrinsically connected. Our bodies are unique due to our genetic makeup, which can affect our nutrient needs. Additionally, nutrients can play a role in the way our metabolic pathways interact and influence our overall health.
Take proteins, for example. Our cells use proteins to create the enzymes that help to drive various metabolic pathways. The structure of the protein molecules and their particular functions are largely determined by our genetic makeup. If there are mutations in the genes responsible for producing a protein, its function may be impaired and a pathway may not function correctly. Nutrition can help to compensate for some of these mutations by providing our bodies with enough of the proper proteins needed to keep a metabolic pathway functioning correctly.
Discover the genetics that affect your baby's cognitive development
Similarly, nutrients from food can provide us with the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to help make the pathways operate efficiently. A vitamin B12 deficiency, for instance, could impair methylation pathways, which helps the body in metabolizing other nutrients. A well-balanced diet will provide all the essential nutrients our bodies need for optimal metabolic function.
The intersection between genetic metabolic pathways and nutrition is incredibly intricate. Genetics and nutrition must work together in order to support our overall health. By understanding how they are linked, we can better meet our bodies' needs and ensure they are functioning at their highest levels.
It is of paramount importance that women who are trying to conceive understand the effects of gene variations and their ability to affect nutrient metabolism. While carrying a child, these effects can be significantly magnified, so a deeper understanding of how nutrition affects your baby’s cognitive development is key.
Research has found that choline is a key nutrient in developing babies' cognitive abilities, with increasing choline levels leading to higher cognitive performance later in life. It’s not always easy to metabolize the required choline, so knowing the source of nutrition and what your body requires is key. If you have gene variations, it is especially important to be aware of what food sources your body needs to metabolize nutrition. As such, if you are looking to have a healthy baby, eating nutrient-rich food with higher choline levels, understanding your body’s nutrient inefficiencies and compensating for them, is of the utmost importance. So, for expecting mothers, eating choline-rich foods, researching their metabolism inefficiencies and understanding their nutrition needs is essential to the cognitive development of their child.
The Genate Test can provide you with important information to understand how metabolic inefficiencies caused by your genetics can impact critical pathways important for both you and your baby's best health.
This article is not intended as medical advice to treat or diagnose any health condition but rather as educational health information for the general public. It should not be used as a substitute for individualized medical care from your healthcare provider.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of my baby getting the proper nutrients?
What are one-carbon nutrients and fatty acids, and why are they important?
One-carbon nutrients and fatty acids are critical for brain and spinal cord development during pregnancy and through the first two years of life. Although all nutrients are important, the one-carbon nutrients choline, folate, betaine, and B vitamins, along with the omega-3 fat DHA, provide the building blocks for proper growth of your developing baby's brain. Research at Cornell and Harvard universities has shown cognitive benefits for children born to mothers who received increased levels of one-carbon nutrients during pregnancy, demonstrating that optimal nutrition during pregnancy can have lasting effects for your baby.
If I buy Genate nutrition supplements, do I still need to take the test?
Genetic testing is a personal choice, and only you can decide what’s best for you and your baby. But the Genate Test is a powerful tool for optimizing your nutrition status, as it identifies genetically-caused metabolic inefficiencies that may influence your body’ ability to make and use the nutrients critical for your baby’s cognitive development. If you have SNPs in any of the nutrient pathways tested, your Genate Report will provide personalized recommendations for optimizing your nutrition. Our registered dietitians can show you how to fill in the gaps with foods and supplementation, if needed, to make sure you’re getting the nutrition you and your baby need.
