Diet and Health Disparities
Source: University of California at Davis

Minority populations have disproportionately high incidences and morbidities of all chronic diseases. The landmark 1985 report, the Secretary's Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health revealed that certain minority populations exhibit higher incidence and severity of diabetes obesity, asthma, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and certain cancers. African American men, for example, have a 60% greater risk of prostate cancer diagnosis and 2 to 3 times greater mortality than men of European decent.

Observations from the largest survey of dietary habits and health status in the U.S., the Third National Health and Nutrition Examinations Survey (NHANES), have establised that older African Americans and Mexican American women and African American men were at greatest risk for CVD, paralleling the heightened risk of CVD among younger ethnic minority populations. Multiple CVD risk factors, including plasma lipids as well as dietary fat, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, contribute to these health disparities in minority.

Nutrigenomics recognizes that individual genetic variation may exacerbate diet as a risk factor for disease and that dietary intervention based upon knowledge of nutritional status, nutritional requirements, and genotype - that is, intelligent nutrition - can remedy or ameliorate disease symptoms. Certain genotypes will be more severely affected by specific kinds of malnutrition than other genotypes - and no genotype is immune to deleterious effects of all diets.