Early last month, I decided to do a DNA test called 3X4 Genetics to better understand the role of the human genome on nutrition. As many of you are aware, my curiosity into the field of personalized nutrition has taken me on a wild ride of food logging, glucose monitoring, and gut testing. But that mostly looks at one vector of our metabolic health– blood sugar.

Tests like 3X4 instead look at Nutrigenetics, the impact of our unique genetic makeup on how our body responds to food intake. This is not to be confused with Nutrigenomics, which examines the influence of nutrients on our gene expression. In both of these fields there's a prevailing view of food as information that speaks to our genes and ultimately provides a set of instructions to our cells.