Nutrigenomics as a strategy for neuronal health

Nutrigenomics through gene expression and epigenetic remodeling can program adult health. Diet during pregnancy and lactation (the first 1000 days of life) can modulate offspring’s epigenome leading to tissue specific variations during cell differentiation processes, and may define epigenetic marks associated with long-term effects on offspring neuronal health. Being epigenetics reversible, a healthy diet represents a fundamental opportunity, even after the first 1000 days of life, for maintaining cellular homeostasis. The positive impact of food (i.e. maternal milk, oily fish, fruit and vegetables, curcumin, tea) with its dietary flavonoids (i.e. sulforaphane, quercetin, lutein, resveratrol, carotenoids) and other bioactive compounds (i.e. docosahexanoic acid, melatonin etc.), will be reflected on chromatin structure modulation and DNA methylation which are associated with switching on/off of genes. An anti-inflammatory diet during earlylife and across the whole life may represent a key strategy for influencing brain plasticity and for building an “epigenetic memory” useful in developing neuronal resilience against early-life stressors and to prevent age-related neurodegeneration.