Family members share DNA, but their nutritional needs will vary

It would be easy if everyone within a family had identical gene-based nutrition needs. Meal planning would be a breeze!

Alas, that’s not the case — nor is it even possible (except between identical twins).

But there is value in collecting gene-based nutrition information for the whole family, according to Sherry Zhang, founder and CEO of GenoPalate.

Zhang’s research at the Medical College focused on genetic variations within families, with a special emphasis on obesity in children and adolescents.

Based on her work, “we know that young individuals with metabolic conditions” are at increased risk to have these problems throughout adulthood, she said. “Early intervention with preventive planning makes a difference.”

She recommends waiting until kids are of school age to have their DNA analyzed for nutrition (or any) purposes, old enough to understand the sample collection procedure and cooperate.

My own kids are well beyond school age — they’re all over 30 — but we thought it would be fun to see how our results compared.

Zhang had predicted that my nutrition biomarkers would be roughly 50% different from my kids and that they, as siblings, would be 50% different from one another. That’s how genes in general work.

In fact, my two younger daughters, who are identical twins, and I are 65% alike, nutritionally speaking, while my nutritional needs are only 56% in line with my oldest daughter. And the twins and their older sister are 71% alike. (GenoPalate does not provide this information in their reports; I asked them to calculate it for me.)

There were surprises for all of us. For example, Candace was surprised to see a recommendation to keep her fat intake low, “because it’s difficult for me to maintain weight, so I try hard to make sure I’m getting enough fat.”

At the same time, seeing that her genes show she has high satiety made sense.

Hilary remarked on the recommendation to eat less salt. “I definitely eat more salt than the average person, but I was literally told by a doctor in the last few years that I have ‘beautiful blood pressure,’ so that was a little surprising.”

While the reports show quite a bit of overlap in foods and other areas, what further complicates the situation is that the four of us all follow different diets (it’s true — come visit our house some holiday!).

I eat pretty much anything, focusing on variety among a wide range of healthy foods (with a nod to my sweet tooth).

Both my twins (now 32) became vegetarian in college, but Hilary will eat sustainable fish and seafood, while Candace recently decided to go 80% paleo, avoiding sugar and dairy and minimizing legumes and grains.

And my oldest, Gwen, who is 35, follows a mostly paleo diet, avoiding (with occasional exceptions) grains and legumes, sugar and processed foods — and dairy foods altogether.

We’ll have to delve deeper into our GenoPalate reports, but at a glance I can see that there are foods recommended for all of us, that all of us would eat. Common ground!

Family members who sign up for GenoPalate together receive a small break on the total cost.