Nutritional genomics, also known as nutrigenomics, is a science studying the relationship between human genome, human nutrition and health. People in the field work toward developing an understanding of how the whole body responds to a food via systems biology, as well as single gene/single food compound relationships. Nutritional genomics or Nutrigenomics is the relation between food and inherited genes, it was first expressed in 2001. Introduction The term "nutritional genomics" is an umbrella term including several subcategories, such as nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, and nutritional epigenetics. Each of these subcategories explain some aspect of how genes react to nutrients and express specific phenotypes, like disease risk. There are several applications for nutritional genomics, for example how much nutritional intervention and therapy can successfully be used for disease prevention and treatment. Background and preventive health Nutritional science originally emerged as a field that studied individuals lacking certain nutrients and the subsequent effects, such as the disease scurvy which results from a lack of vitamin C. As other diseases closely related to diet (but not deficiency), such as obesity, became more prevalent, nutritional science expanded to cover these topics as well. Nutritional research typically focuses on preventative measure, trying to identify what nutrients or foods will raise or lower risks of diseases and damage to the human body. For example, Prader–Willi syndrome, a disease whose most distinguishing factor is insatiable appetite, has been specifically linked to an epigenetic pattern in which the paternal copy in the chromosomal region is erroneously deleted, and the maternal loci is inactivated by over methylation. Yet, although certain disorders may be linked to certain single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or other localized patterns, variation within a population may yield many more polymorphisms. Mediterranean Diet The Mediterranean Diet refers to naturally occurring foods native to Greece, Italy and Spain before globalization of food products in the 20th century. The diet includes relatively high consumption of fruit, vegetables, olive oil, legumes, whole grains and moderate amounts of red wine. Foods with increased fat and dairy are minimally consumed. Countless nutritional genomics studies have pointed towards the Mediterranean Diet to be most nutritionally beneficial. It has been positively linked towards decreased mortality by providing protective agents against metabolic diseases, cardiovascular disease and several types of cancer. These benefits are due to the abundance of dietary bioactive compounds present in Mediterranean staples. Examples of this include Curcuma longa (turmeric), Resveratrol, Lycopene, Capsaicin, Quercetin, and