CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Vault
  • Audio
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



A New Key To Genetic Coding: Broccoli

Aug 01, 2014
by Caroline Miller
epigenetic modification, Inheritance, Sharon Moarelm
2 Comments

Periodically, over the years, a group of former political colleagues and I have gathered for lunch to share the events in our lives and the latest political gossip.  The restaurant where we used to meet was known for serving healthy, organic foods but we didn’t go there for the menu.  We liked the convenience.  Unfortunately, the restaurant closed, so my task was to find a new watering hole.  The internet helped me locate several likely restaurants but the one most convenient was known for its calorie laden foods.  No one balked at the idea of using it for a meeting place, however, and so I set the date for our next luncheon.

 On the appointed day, a hostess seated us at a long table and not long after we’d placed our orders, dishes emerged from the kitchen, each larded with fat, enough to make a dietician gasp.  No one complained and everyone smiled as they passed the ketchup bottle around.  

 We were all aware of the connection  between fried foods and sick hearts, so we dug into our crispy chicken at our peril and seemed to enjoy it.   What we did not know, however, was that a greater peril lay beneath our arteries.   Sharon Moarelm makes a connection between food and our genes in her new book,  Inheritance.  Until now, we thought a gene’s mutation was caused by “clerical” error, a replication gone wrong.  Moarelm explains otherwise.  While food doesn’t affect the internal structure of genes, it can turn genes off and on with dire consequences to our bodies.  (Inheritance by Sharon Moalem, Grand Central Publishing, 2014, reviewed in Scientific American,  May/June, pg 72.)

 We don’t have far to look an example of the link between food and genetic coding. The difference between a worker bee and a queen rests in the amount of royal jelly each is fed.  Allow a worker bee to gorge on enriched food and the hive would soon have a second queen.  The silencing and unsilencing of genes is called epigenetic modification, a term we’d better get used to for our own good.

 That we can affect our genes by the foods we eat may be unnerving but consider the upside.  Researchers may learn how to tweak  this coding for the better.   As Moalem observes, who we are is “not only what our genes give us… but also what we give our genes.” (Ibid. pg. 72)  Moral of the story?  Eat more broccoli.

child hating vegetables

Courtesy of gladchildhood.blogspot.com

Social Share
2 Comments
  1. Bill Whitlatch August 1, 2014 at 9:19 am Reply
    Was the previous restaurant "Old Wives Tales" ? It was one of my favorites.
    • Caroline Miller August 1, 2014 at 9:28 am Reply
      Yes. Good guess.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published five novels

  • Getting Lost To Find Home
  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller