You Are What Your Grandmother Ate

[Dover]

You are what your grandmother ate
22:00 13 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi


A mother’s diet can change the behaviour of a specific gene for at least two subsequent generations, a new study demonstrates for the first time.

Feeding mice an enriched diet during pregnancy silenced a gene for light fur in their pups. And even though these pups ate a standard, un-enriched diet, the gene remained less active in their subsequent offspring.

The findings could help explain the curious results from recent studies of human populations – including one showing that the grandchildren of well-fed Swedes had a greater risk of diabetes.

The new mouse experiment lends support to the idea that we inherit not only our genes from our parents, but also a set of instructions that tell the genes when to become active. These instructions appear to be passed on through “epigenetic” changes to DNA – genes can be activated or silenced according to the chemical groups that are added onto them.

Gene silencer..cont'd

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10518-you-are-what-your-grandmother-ate.html

[LeftyMom]

1. I'm going to die.

My maternal grandmother lived on vodka and Marlboro light 100s. Her vitamin intake mostly came from her breakfast screwdriver. I loved the woman to death, but her habits weren't precisely healthy ones.

[Ecumenist]

2. ROTFLMAO!!!

I almost choked to death laughing at your post!! If a grandmother's diet helps the subsequent generation genetically, I'm NEVER going to die. Neither of my grands drank or smoked and ate fresh veggies, clean water, fish and meat. Maybe it's what explains my age defying skin but I wonder about the health thing. You'll probably live to be 214 years old JUST BECAUSE your grandmum tippled and smoked. :hi:

[aquart]

3. My grandmother liked burnt.

She ate the scorched bottoms of pots. I had to purposely burn her Christmas cookies.

Now I eat burnt.

What the hell does that mean?

[Syncronaut Seven]

5. Cancer, I'd cut it out.

Unless it's pharmaceutical grade activated carbon, burn't ain't normally good. :silly:

[YankeyMCC]

4. Pirogies, chicken bone marrow

lots of lard, lots of vodka

Oh crap...

[Catshrink]

6. Pickled pigs feet?

I'm doomed, doomed I tell ya.

[ms liberty]

7. Oh, there's a happy thought...

One of my grandmothers (maternal) dropped dead at 57 from a heart attack. She was a farmer's wife, in rural NC. Biscuits, gravy, chitlins, eggs, bacon, etc...
My other grandmother (paternal) cooked basically the same way, even though she was in Ga., in what is now more or less an outlying suburb of Atlanta. She lived into her 90's though. One of my earliest memories is killing and dressing a hog at Thanksgiving at their house. So to the above add pigs feet and brains, ham, etc...


So this means I was born with clogged arteries and heart disease or something. I'm doomed!

[Odin2005]

8. "grandchildren of well-fed Swedes had a greater risk of diabetes" Oh, fuck.

[Igel]

9. The surprising thing with the Swedish one is that it looked at the

male contribution.

I'd assume that my maternal grandmother's living conditions could influence my genes: After all, the egg that provided half my DNA was formed in my grandmother's womb.

Then again, the testes that produced the sperm that provided the other half of my DNA were formed in my paternal grandmother's womb, and half of their DNA was provided by my paternal grandfather ... so while I'd assume the affect was less, I could see how some influence could occur. Esp. since DNA demethylation doesn't seem to be a quick process. So maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.