Lori Rooker
Will getting your personal DNA tested help you with you Diet and Weight Loss Program? It absolutely will and in this article will do our best to explain exactly how.
The great news as I will explain later, is you can now
conduct your own DNA test in the privacy of your own home and have a
personal Health Report created for you, and even a customized nutritional
product for you if you choose.
Before we get into the science, I have a joke for you.
What did one DNA strand say to the other?
Do these Genes make me look fat?
I thought it was funny. Weather you
think my joke is funny or not, really isn’t the point of this article, that point
is having your own personal DNA “HEALTH” report can give you major insight into
maintain an ideal weight and over all health.
Genome testing gives us way more data so that way we aren’t flying totally blind.
In this article we will be sharing with you DNA based diets or better explain, crafting a diet based off of genetic markers and correlations and how we can even have science customize our own vitamins specifically for our own DNA. Before we go any further, I believe this short video clip is worth taking a look at.
If you are like me and most vitamin believer’s that clip just blew you away., As I watched this presentation my jaw was opened, eyes wide opened, because the different applications for this type of technology are just incredibly promising. It is like the future of health and nutrition is here, now!
One of the biggest challenges that I find in dieting and nutrition, has been finding ways to make meal plans as personalized as possible, and getting past that frustration of throwing stuff at the wall to find out what works. That’s why some diets that have been coming out right now like the blood type diet, and the personality type diet are so popular because we’re all trying to cut those corners.
They are designed around these markers that the creators believe are better indicators as to whether or not you will have success in your diet. And knowing that information up front saves you a lot of time and energy proving what actually works, so I get it. And while those diets are a step in the right direction compared to more broad-stroke diets like keto and veganism or even something like Atkins, they’re still not as individually tailored as a DNA based diet.
You can draw a bit of a parallel between nutrition and fashions. Different colors and fabrics go in and out of style, and so do different fits. When I an buying clothes for my husband I know his sizes. He wears a large shirt, a 32inch waist pants, and then size 10 shoes. But each brand and style will fit you slightly differently; right? That’s like a lot of the mainstream diets and vitamins and minerals out there. They are off the rack stuff and you learn what fits you by trying on different things and that’s okay because we should be experimenting, so long as we’re not putting our health at risk.
But DNA based nutrition and diet plans are like going to a tailor and getting your chest, your neck, your waist, your inseam; all that measured, and deciding on which fabrics and colors compliment you and your lifestyle and your complexion, and then having pieces made that fits you in the way that you want it to. Basically, like the tailor’s tape genomic testing gives you the information that you need to craft a truly personalized meal plans and a nutrition supplement that’s perfectly suited to you as an individual.
So, I did it and I’ll share some of those findings within a minute, but I wanted to give you some of the pros and cons about what people are saying about it.
Like most things in the nutrition and wellness industry the DNA diet and
Uforia vitamins are being met with a healthy dose of skepticism. And that’s a good thing because we should always be careful about what we put into our bodies and who we’re listening to. Critics are pointing to the high price tag the inaccessibility of DNA testing they’re doubting the accuracy and also the validity of some of the results, because it is such a new idea.
When you really look at where most of the negativity is coming from it is
more from competitors than critics, and I have yet to find a dissatisfied customer.
How would you feel if you owned stock in a large nutritional supplement or diet program knowing it was on its way to becoming obsolete?
However, a proponent of it are quick to mention that the cost of getting your hands on this type of information is actually going down. As you probably saw in the video clip, Uforia Science now has an in home DNA kit that is sent to a certified lab for known DNA Health related snips.
DNA testing for random purposes like you know the ancestry the accuracy and correlations of things will likely improve as Uforia is obviously doing by using only Hippa certified labs to run test results for their customers.
So, even if it’s not totally comprehensive (which I believe it is) you’re still getting way more accurate information and more actionable info than you have ever had before. And you’ll probably have moments like I did when you’re like, “so that’s why I’m feeling that way, or that’s why that tastes that way”.
The most important thing to keep in mind though, and this applies to nearly everything in health and wellness, or just in life in general, is this rule is; “that correlation does not imply causation”. I learned this as a concept because it was stressed to me in grad school trying to determine the effectiveness of different policies and programs and laws. For example, you’ll often hear that people say that the vegan diet is healthy because it’s just vegetables, and many people have reported significant weight loss and heart healthiness, while following a plant-based diet.
So, some will say go Vegan to lose weight. Why? Because the vegan diet has a correlation with weight loss for some people. But as we all know, you could still be vegan and still be obese, and have health related issues. It’s just associated with weight loss, because there are other factors that influence weight loss, such as portion control, eating too many simple carbs and sugars and the list goes on, not to mention your DNA.
So, correlation is not causation. Genome testing is the same way. It reveals genetic markers that are unique to you and correlated to certain diseases predispositions and deficiencies that exist in a population. So, while it doesn’t say that you know that if you had this particular genome type that you are gonna have this thing happen to you. It does however, empower you with a whole lot of data that you didn’t know about before which you could use to make informed decisions about your eating habits,vitamin and mineral supplementation and your healthy lifestyle in general. You get to know your body intimately, and that’s one of the most important things that I found seeing my personal test results.
And so, that’s why when I saw what Uforia Science was doing it was like fireworks going off of my head about the potential for this, it’s just so huge.
Never before in history have, we had you know this kind of data readily available as such the individual level. And then we could understand it too. This is so big it should be on the nightly news until people start to understand you no longer have to guess what vitamins you should be taking. Those days are over, not because anybody says so, because your
personal DNA says so.
So I got my DNA test done through Uforia Science because I wanted to
see the 35 page report and have them manufacture custom supplements
for me based upon my DNA.
Once the test results come back, they will send you an e-mail, and that gives you access to their online portal, and you can click through everything or you can just request for a PDF download. And that’s what the people you saw on the above video clip were holding and talking about. This is a pretty extensive report. It’s about 35 pages, and I know that just the sound of that it seems pretty overwhelming. They do a really good job of breaking down the data so that way it’s color-coded and you can walk through it section by sections.
The report starts out it shows you the good genes, and the good genes are places where you are slightly advantaged or just advantaged, and then the other one would be your risky genes.
Like the video stated Green is Good, Yellow is Neutral and Red is Bad.
This is why I highly recommend this because reading through this report. was really good, even though it was really bad. Several of my friend and family have had Uforia do their DNA Health test and none of them have had as many Reds as I have.. It was just really good to just absorb the information and I know that it can be like an info overload right away. However the diet plans and supplements they manufacture for me give me a confidence that I am consuming daily what I need to be consuming like I have never had.
In fact when you stop and think about it without a personal DNA Health
report it is impossible to be intelligent and as confident in your health.
So, don’t look at it as you have to change everything about your diet today. You have to change everything about your eating habits right now. This again is just information and this is just correlation, okay. So, don’t take anything that I’m sharing today as; “this was gonna happen to me”, and this is why these things can just explain, some things that you would probably already know about yourselves, but you just did not have the capacity to really explain them. And now, today you’re like “oh okay, this totally makes sense”. What was fascinating was after my parents had their report done and comparing the three. Uforia Science was 100% right on and if they weren’t I would have known when I compared by report with my parents.
So, here is a great example. According to this report I have three genetic variations that are linked to a slightly elevated risk of having difficulty in losing weight. The report actually recommends that I consume about 10% less than the recommended caloric restrictions recommended by tools like the Mayo Clinic healthy weight pyramid.
This made me think about a couple years ago when I was at my leanness and everyone was saying that I was eating too…too few calories. And I was eating around 1,700 calories a day, but I felt perfectly fine. But when I tried to up them to the optimal amount for me which is around 2,500/3,000 the weight loss stalled and I began to gain weight. And this has happened to me so many times with different trainers and nutritionists. They’ll always start me out on this recommended plan and then get frustrated with the you know with the results because they’re not as quick and then they’d lower the calories and things would just improve. So now I have this information, it’s like a confirmation of something that I always felt but never have the data to really back it up.
So now, if I were to start up a new plan with the new trainer or nutritionist tomorrow, I could share this information and say, “hey let’s just start out with slightly lower calories just a bit”, and this is the reason why.
So, if you have followed me long enough then you know that one of my least favorite foods of all time it’s got to be Brussels Sprouts. I just hate them. So now, I understand why I’m actually predisposed to despise things like Brussels Sprouts, because this test shows that I have bitter taste sensitivity.
This implies that you may find it difficult to eat dark leafy green veggies in particular Broccoli or Brussels Sprouts. So “mmm”, I had a big laugh sharing this with my parents, because as a kid, I was that kid at the table that would cry, because my mom would say, “you would eat that food”. And I just hated it, like it just tasted so disgusting to me. And my parents can cook. We had wonderful dinners but I still hated Brussels sprouts. And now, I take it back to my mom, and I said, “hey you were forcing me to eat something that that I just wasn’t genetically born to actually like. How do you feel as a mother?”. All in good fun of course.
And here’s the beauty about this report too. It actually shows you maybe how to enjoy the food. So, it says things like this it says if you feel adventurous try things like adding honey, some sweetness to some Brussels sprouts which I actually have. I have the maple Brussels sprouts which I said I liked so this report is just teaching me what I’ve been discovering on you know all along, about like how to make things taste better, but that are so bitter to me. It’s…it’s giving me data to say, “hey girl, you want crazy Lori, and your mom was really awful for making you eat that. Sorry mom, I’m just kidding. I’m just playing I’m just playing mama golly”.
And so, the ha-ha moments just kept going. Another one that I will you know, that I was really surprised about but now I have data behind it is Satiety Impairment. So, this one was actually in the red meaning highly elevated. This one basically says that it refers to the physical sensation of fullness from eating. When Satiety is normal, the brain receives a signal that you know there’s enough calories have been consumed reducing the feeling of hunger.
So, you know at times when people ask me how I started to lose weight, and then I always preach about mindfulness and eating slower, well this is one of the reasons why. I eat too fast because I don’t feel full and so I’ll just continue to eat. But the slower I’ve actually eaten, the more aware I am and I’m giving the time basically for the signal from my stomach to reach my brain to say “hey Lori stop eating”. Now that was something that I figured out all along; right? with this whole journey, but here it is in black and white for the first time. I just didn’t even know that and like oh wow this is actually a thing maybe the signal from your brain is a little bit slow like mine. I imagine looks like Homer Simpson or like Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
So, if you followed me for long enough then you know that one of the things that I’ve been struggling with my entire life has been depression and anxiety. and one of the biggest moments for me with this report was this information on, oh, Magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is an important electrolyte needed for proper muscle function, strong bones and good heart health. now imbalances have been linked to various complications such as cramps, constipation, poor sleep, retention, migraine headaches, anxiety and depression, chronic fatigue and Minstrels syndrome. So, this kept popping up in other areas of the report because I was at a higher risk for having depression and anxiety. This popped out because it’s one of the first ways that I’ve kind of understood this could be linked to diet. and so, it talks about having foods that are rich in magnesium such as nuts, and seeds, and legumes, oats, bananas, and dark chocolate.
This was a great moment for me too because I took this part of the study back to my dad and we talked about it. and he said “you know we thought the same thing when you were growing up, we thought that there was something like a little bit you know off we didn’t really know what”. But again, they’re making decisions based off of the information that they had. so now, in 2020, we have this information right in front of us. I have an understanding of how food can also make me feel since I’m at higher risk for something.
So yeah, this report is filled with different ha-ha moments I’m not going to go through now Plus, some of the stuff is really personal. It even gets into some of the physical pieces as well. I wasn’t in the red for anything here when it came to my physical health, I was actually advantaged a little bit.
I had good overall fitness benefits. I had a high response to resistance training which I’ve known all along that I’ve kind of figured that out. and then I’m also good here with the with the exercise benefits for a maximal oxygen uptake response, which means I’m good in like spurts of things.
Now if you put me around the track and try to do a mile, you’re gonna have to roll me around in the stretcher because I’m just not gonna make it. But these short maximal bursts of energy I’m good at. So, in all just remember that the results that this kind of report aren’t meant to be like a GPS coordinate that lay out every step that you’ll take on your journey. They’re more like a map that give you the lay of the land so you can make more informed decision as it relates to you and only you.
And what I loved about these examples is that they just confirmed a lot of things for me that I was already thinking about myself, but I never had the words to fully express. This report gave me something like it was a sense of closure or just a confirmation of what I was already feeling and now I feel empowered to make decisions about my health, because I know I’m right; I know that it’s true. I love receiving my Uforia Supplements delivered to my door every month, and I know I am experiencing the future
of nutrition now.
I would recommend looking into this if you’re a parent, because a lot of times kids can’t express how food tastes, or how it makes them feel. So being equipped with this type of info could help you to craft better meal plans for them and even understand some of their behavior. It’s not going to lead to a total absence of the problems but it will help you to approach them in a much more strategic way.
Life’s about trying different things, and seeing what works best for you and I would never discourage that. However, you just can’t put yourself at risk, and genome testing gives us way more data so that way we aren’t flying totally blind. So the more informed we are, the better decisions that we can make and the more likely our diet and our nutrition plans will lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle over the long haul, and then we’ll actually stick to it.
I will say one last thing about this is that you have to be ready to embrace the results. Sometimes the information that’s shared about you is not a savory; you know, and so you may feel a certain way about it. So, you just got to know are you ready to learn more about yourself. I know that’s a really easy question but something that I don’t think that a lot of people really think about.
What does this actually mean? Because now you’re going to be responsible much more responsible for the decisions that you make. And also, I don’t want you take the data and go overboard and start thinking like “this is the way that I’m supposed to eat now I can only have this because…”, no remember correlation is not causation.
So just because you have these genes that are correlated with higher risk factors, does not mean that you’re going to go and get whatever they’re saying; alright? So please keep that in mind, and the more you know. the
more empowered your become.
So that is it for this article.. I want appreciate your feedback if you’ve ever done DNA testing or some genome testing or if you are considering it. If you have done it and with the service that you used and I will post the links to Uforia Science below as well so you can check it out if you are so inclined to go and do that. This is something guys that is brand new. But I’m really excited about the potential because again this type of information even just 10 years ago would cost tens of thousands of dollars to get, but now because of technology it’s you can have your DNA test done and first month of supplements manufactured for less than $300. I have actually saved money on my Whole Foods Vitamin bill and have my personalized, customized product mailed to my door every month. How cool is that? Today we have more resources to make sense of it all, which is a really good thing so keep that in mind.
Alright guys thank you for reading this article. Until … bye guys
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