Health: Fate or Free Will?

Do we really have control over our health? The question of whether or not the events of your life are based on fate or free will is age old. And this certainly relates to how and when we leave this Earth.  When working and talking with people about their health and diet, a common response ties into this notion of the pre-destiny of our lives and our ultimate fate.  This type of response comes from either a) the individual with an absolute faith in a higher being that dictates all or b) the individual who falls back on a) because it sounds nice (and/or he/she really doesn't know) and realistically doesn’t want to change their eating habits at that point in time.  Inherent in the work that I do, I do feel that our health is determined by the choices we make everyday and our environment, but whether or not these choices are shaped by our fate or actual free will is beyond me.   

We Are What Our Ancestors Ate: Part 2

SCIENCE GEEK ALERT:  As previously mentioned, I am alarming you before I get into the nitty gritty of nutrition!

Food can be considered an environmental factor to which our bodies adapt for optimal function.  In fact, the relatively new fields of nutrigenomics and epigenetics aim to explore how foods and the environment (respectively) influence genetic expression and what are known as genetic polymorphisms.  Genetic polymorphisms are differences in the genetic code among a given species giving rise to different characteristics.  In our case, examples include blood type and skin complexion caused by differences in melanin production.