Nutrients as regulators of gene expression

Nutrition as a science has undergone dramatic changes over the last few decades. A virtual paradigm shift has occurred when oldfashioned phenomenological approaches successively have been replaced by more molecular and mechanistic strategies to understand how nutrients affect our body. Good examples of 'molecular nutrition' are the studies showing that a significant number of nutrients act by binding to soluble receptors, in the same way as steroid hormones, thereby activating these receptors to function as transcription factors affecting gene expression. A summary of this exciting development is given in this article.