You Are What Your Grandparents Ate: What You Need to Know About Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics and the Origins of Chronic Disease

by Judith Finlayson, Kent Thornburg (Foreword by)

Overview

Learn how to live a healthy life and leave a legacy of wellness by looking both to the past and to the future.

You Are What Your Grandparents Ate takes conventional wisdom about the origins of chronic disease and turns it upside down. Rooted in the work of the late epidemiologist Dr. David Barker, it highlights the exciting research showing that heredity involves much more than the genes your parents passed on to you. Thanks to the relatively new science of epigenetics, we now know that the experiences of previous generations may show up in your health and well-being.

Many of the risks for chronic diseases — including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and dementia — can be traced back to your first 1,000 days of existence, from the moment you were conceived. The roots of these vulnerabilities may extend back even further, to experiences your parents and grandparents had — and perhaps even beyond.

Similarly, what happens to you will affect your children and grandchildren. That's why it's so important to make good dietary choices, get a suitable amount of exercise and be cautious about exposure to toxins. Positive lifestyle changes have been shown to spark epigenetic adjustments that can lead to better health, not only for yourself, your offspring and their children, but also for generations to come.

This book makes hard science accessible. It is a call to action for social as well as personal change, delivering the message that by changing our own health, we can also influence the future of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778806332
Publisher:	Rose, Robert Incorporated
Publication date:	08/16/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	563,046
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Judith Finlayson is a bestselling author who has written books on a variety of subjects, from personal well-being and women's history to food and nutrition. A former national newspaper columnist for The Globe and Mail, magazine journalist and board member of various organizations focusing on legal, medical and women's issues, she is also the author of over a dozen cookbooks. Judith lives in Toronto, Canada.

Foreword and scientific review by Dr. Kent Thornburg, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Developmental Health at the Knight Cardiovascular Institute, and Director of the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition and Wellness at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword by Dr. Kent Thornburg
Preface

Chapter 1: David Barker and Epidemiology
Chapter 2: The Emergence of Epigenetics
Chapter 3: Your Family, Your Genome, Nutrition and Your Health
Chapter 4: Beyond Nutrition
Chapter 5: The First Thousand Days
Chapter 6: Childhood and Adolescence
Chapter 7: Adulthood
Chapter 8: Aging
Chapter 9: Your Microbiome

Epilogue
Glossary
Acknowledgements
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2019

Journalist Finlayson (The Chili Pepper Bible) draws upon the groundbreaking work of late epidemiologist David Barker in this fascinating and eye-opening treatise on how a wide variety of chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, obesity etc.) are linked not only to current lifestyle but to such other factors as stress, environmental toxins, and even, per the title, one’s grandparents' diet. Finlayson argues that the seeds of good health are planted long before birth; research shows that what one’s mother ate during pregnancy—and even what one’s grandmother ate—as well as the kinds of trauma and experiences to which a pregnant mother is exposed (e.g. famine, poverty) may affect the gene expression of her offspring and thus that of future generations, as well. Emphasizing the importance of good nutrition, Finlayson comprehensively examines the first 1,000 days after conception as the time when the groundwork is set for a healthy (or unhealthy) life. In conclusion, Finlayson proposes that rather than cutting public health assistance, a more cost-effective approach would be to improve people’s economic stability, consequently improving their access to nutrition. Finlayson’s observations will be of interest not only to scientists but to all those seeking to enhance their own—and their children’s—health outcomes. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly