Poor Eating Habits May Impact Your Health Even After You Change Your Diet

When it comes to diet, you are what you eat. Now, though, scientists have found this is more true than ever before. While improving your eating habits will improve your health, the effects of poor eating habits will linger even after dietary habits are improved.

In this case, the scientists examined two groups of mice that were susceptible to developing high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. The mice were either fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet or were fed a normal diet. After a long period of feeding, bone marrow was isolated from the mice and transplanted into mice with a similar genetic background. The recipient mice were left on the normal diet for several months and then were examined.

It turned out that mice that received bone marrow from the mice fed a high-fat diet had different DNA methylation, which is an epigenetic signature. In addition, the mice had large differences in their immune system and increased atherosclerosis.

"I hope this study demonstrates the importance of diet-induced changes in the epigenome and encourages further research into the interaction between dietary patterns, DNA methylation and disease," said Erik van Kampen, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The findings reveal that even after successful treatment of atherosclerosis, including lowering of blood cholesterol and a change of dietary habits, the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle still affect the way an immune system function. This is largely due to the fact that poor eating habits alter the way in which genes express themselves.

"We've long known that lifestyle and nutrition could affect immune system function," said John Wherry, one of the researchers. "The ability of nutritional history to have durable effects on immune cells demonstrated in this new report could have profound implications for treatment of diseases with immune underpinnings. The length of such effects will be critical to determine and it will be interesting to examine the effects of drugs that can modify epigenetics."

The findings are published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.