As you know, retooling your diet by eating the right whole fresh foods for your body's unique nutritional type can do a great deal of good for your health, just as a steady diet of processed, trans-fatty junk food can harm it.

Along those same lines, based on a number of studies over the past two years, scientists have shown how the genes of rats injected with specific food supplements were changed permanently, for the good and not so good.

In the latest experiment, researchers injected a group of 90-day-old well-reared rats with L-methionine, a common food supplement. This amino acid affected the glucocorticoid gene, negatively affecting the rats' behavior.

Although scientists weren't keen on the idea of people injecting themselves with supplements in hopes of changing their mental and physical health forever, it showed how the right and wrong kinds of food can have a dramatic effect on your genes.

The best way for you to get started on the path toward optimal health is to take my free test that will help you determine your body's ideal nutritional type and choose the right whole foods.

If you think eating properly is expensive and time-consuming, I urge you to review two awesome columns by contributing editor Colleen Huber who shows you how to do it quickly and on a budget.

New Scientist.com November 17, 2005