Another Way to Fix Your Genes

It’s hard to believe, but true. You can turn off” disease-promoting genes and “turn on” disease-preventing genes simply by changing what you eat and how you live. But that’s not all you can do to make your genes healthier.

In addition to the antioxidants that protect DNA from free-radical damage, there’s a process that is absolutely essential to keep your DNA healthy: methylation.

But methylation doesn’t just protect your DNA. It is, in fact, at the very core of our biochemistry. It is involved with:

• producing neurotransmitters

• cell communication

• reducing the heart-harming amino acid homocysteine

• enhancing detoxification

• reducing inflammation

It’s no wonder that improper methylation increases the risk of almost every chronic illness, including cancer, heart disease, depression, Alzheimer’s, and more.

The good news is that, given the right ingredients, your body is a veritable methylating machine. Those ingredients are vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate. And here are the delicious foods that provide them:

•Vitamin B6: wild salmon (6 oz = 68% of what you need every day), organic, free-range chicken (1 breast = 64%), chickpeas (1 cup = 57%)

*Vitamin B12: clams (3 oz = 692%), oysters (1 dozen, Eastern wild = 545%), mussels (3 oz, New Zealand Green Lipped = 168%), wild salmon (6 oz = 88%), grass-fed beef (3 oz = 14%)

•Folate: lentils (1 cup = 90%), black beans (1 cup = 64%), endive (3 cups = 53%), spinach (3 cups = 44%)

This is yet another example of how a delicious meal like pan-roasted wild salmon with a spinach and lentil salad can please your palate while preserving your health.

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Kelley Herring

Kelley Herring is the Founder & CEO of Healing Gourmet – a multimedia company that educates on how foods promote health and protect against disease. As a young adult, Kelley battled a debilitating health condition that went misdiagnosed by multiple doctors for more than a year. Finding no help from “modern medicine”, she turned to her own knowledge of biochemistry and her passion for health research. She soon learned that her symptoms were related to nutrition and within weeks, she charted a course back to health with nothing more than simple lifestyle changes and the power of the plate. The lessons she learned spawned the creation of Healing Gourmet. Kelley is a firm believer in vigorous exercise, moderate sun exposure and delicious, healthy, home-cooked meals. She is also the creator of Healing Gourmet’s Personalized Nutrition Software and Editor-in-Chief of the Healing Gourmet book series published by McGraw-Hill including Eat to Fight Cancer, Eat to Beat Diabetes, Eat to Lower Cholesterol and Eat to Boost Fertility.