Make mine marrowbones

Medical Laboratory Observer, March, 2005 by Carren Bersch

Sir Winston Churchill gave me all the ammunition I needed to amuse my classmates in 8th grade as I diagrammed sentences at the blackboard. I quipped aloud Churchill's glorious quotation about grammar: "From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

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My attempt at comedy meant a trip to the principal and vague threats about telephoning my mother--who later confessed her pride that I had quoted Winnie perfectly. Mother's favorite Churchill sally was between Lady Astor and Churchill when he jocularly responded to her remark: "Winston, if I were your wife, I'd put poison in your coffee," with: "Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."

Winston's name came up again recently in a Jan. 17, 2005, Newsweek cover article, "Diet & Genes, The New Science of Nutrition and Aging." With Dr. Catherine Otto penning this month's cover story on obesity; Dr. Robert White and Dr. Steven Wong, as well as Richard Gabriel, instructing on pharmacogenomics; and the Endocrine Society guest writing "Washington Report," the publication grabbed my attention at the newsstand; I invested in a copy.

The gist of the article? One diet does not fit all--that nutrition plus genomics will equal tailor-made genotypical food plans. But screening for certain genetic traits in developing those diet plans raises questions over possible discrimination by insurance companies against those with risk factors (e.g., Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes).

The feature goes on to ask, "What's the point of testing for something if the inevitable advice that comes out of it is to exercise and eat a healthy diet? Didn't we know that already?" The author then says, "The answer lies in the 'Churchill effect,' people's natural inclination to believe that if Winston Churchill lived to 90 on a diet of marrowbones, champagne, and cigars, why not them?"

Good old Winnie. I wonder what observations he would have made about proposed state and federal legislation to combat fast-growing (no pun intended) obesity among American youth--the "Childhood Obesity Reduction Act." Or how about the "Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act"? Would he have yelped about the restructuring of America's Food Guide Pyramid? Would he have appreciated (along with a sip of the bubbly and a fancy stogie) the wit and wisdom of "Super Size Me"--the odyssey of a man's 30-day McDonald's diet?

Probably. If he were with us now, I think he might say, "Never in the field of fast food was so much gobbled by so many ...."

But back to diet and genes.

Shortly before Newsweek's feature, Maclyn McCarty died at age 93 (on Jan. 2). He had worked at Rockefeller University for more than 60 years and, with others, conducted experiments in the early 1940s that determined DNA was the carrier of genetic information. Their work paved the way for countless genetic studies since, like those of Rosalind Franklin, whose discovery of crucial keys to DNA's structure enabled James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins to reveal DNA's double-helix structure.

Many of last century's early genetic pioneers like McCarty, Crick (d. July 28, 2004), and H. Bentley Glass (d. Jan. 16, 2005) of the American Society of Human Genetics are now passing from the scene. From Gregor Mendel--the "father of genetics"--to Friedrich Miescher who identified DNA in 1871, to Watson and Crick, to today's nutritional genomists, the unfolding story of human DNA with its implications for what has come to be known as "personalized medicine" is astonishing.

Maybe marrowbones and champagne with cigars really were just the ticket for old Winnie. And if I could get my wish, Snickers bars, blackberry cobbler, and warm homemade sourdough bread slathered with butter would be mine.

My question remains: Will "designer" diets and/or legislation work when our own common sense does not?

Carren Bersch

cbersch@nelsonpub.com