It’s in your G-BOMBS, NOT your genes!

What’s the major determinant of your health status – that is, your level of vitality, resistance to infectious disease, and susceptibility to chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, cancer, dementia and type 2 diabetes?

If you answered “My genes – my Mum/Dad/grandparents/whoever had cancer/heart disease/diabetes/arthritis/whatever so I guess I’m doomed to get it too”, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are very few diseases which are genetically inherited in the true sense of the word, and they are relatively rare; examples include cystic fibrosis, haemochromatosis, Huntington’s disease and haemophilia.

The vast majority of diseases that cause suffering and premature death in Australia are not attributable to ‘bad genes’, but to susceptible genes placed in a bad environment. As an analogy, imagine planting a delicate tomato seedling in a patch of fully-grown weeds. How do you think the seedling will fare if it has to fight for sunlight and nutrients with the weeds? Chances are, it will grow poorly, be highly vulnerable to pest attack, and never manage to bear fruit before it’s strangled by the rampaging weeds.

But what if you planted that tomato seedling in a garden bed in a sunny position that had been carefully weeded and prepared with rich compost, and you weeded and fertilised that garden bed every week? You could expect to harvest a bumper crop of delicious tomatoes from it! There’s no genetic difference between the plant that thrives and the plant that shrivels up, but the plant’s genes respond to the environmental conditions that it is exposed to.

Just like the tomato seedling, your genes respond to the conditions you ‘plant’ them in. Feed them on highly processed, nutrient-poor food and a sedentary lifestyle, and you will ‘turn on’ genes that activate the disease processes you’re susceptible to. Feed them on high nutrient-per-calorie foods and regular physical activity, and you will ‘turn off’ your disease genes and switch on the ones that ensure your whole body is functioning at its highest possible level.

The branch of biology which studies the processes by which lifestyle choices alter gene activity is called epigenetics and it’s one of the hottest areas of scientific research right now. For example, Dr Dean Ornish put men with early-stage prostate cancer on a program consisting of a low-fat, plant-based diet, regular exercise and social and emotional support.

His comprehensive program slowed down or stopped the progression of prostate cancer in most of the men so that they didn’t need to have surgery or take drugs. How did it achieve this remarkable feat? Epigenetic studies showed that Ornish’s program modified the activity of over 500 genes, many of them involved in the growth and spread of cancer (1).

Everything you eat, drink, think, feel and do ‘talks’ to your genes, switching them on or off; increasing or decreasing the output of the proteins, hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes and other substances they cause to be made; and thereby changing – for better or worse – the way your body works.

But there are 6 food groups that have a particularly powerful positive effect on turning ‘disease genes’ off and turning ‘healthy genes’ on. Pioneering doctor Joel Fuhrman has dubbed them G-BOMBS, which stands for

Green leafy vegetables;
Beans (i.e. legumes – dried beans, peas and lentils);
Onions (and other onion family members including garlic, leek, chives and shallots);
Mushrooms
Berries and
Seeds.

Think of G-BOMBS as dropping love bombs on your healthy genes, and atom bombs on your disease genes. Various compounds in G-BOMBS activate genes that detoxify cancer-causing chemicals, lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol production and increase its excretion from your body; increase the production of mood-lifting neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine; safely remove excess hormones from your body so they can’t stimulate the growth of cancerous tumours; stimulate immune cells to fight off viruses, bacteria and cancer cells; repair damaged tissues in your joints, arteries and other tissues; and a myriad of other health-promoting activities.

(1) ‘Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention’