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The growing field of genetics is showing us what many scientists have suspected for years foods can immediately influence the genetic blueprint. This information helps us better understand that genes are under our control. Consider identical twins; both individuals are given the same genes. In midlife, one twin develops cancer, and the other lives a long healthy life without cancer. A specific gene instructed one twin to develop cancer, but in the other the same gene did not initiate the disease. One possibility is that the healthy twin had a diet that turned off the cancer gene. the same gene that instructed the other person to get sick. For many years, scientists have recognized other environmental factors, such as chemical toxins (tobacco for example), can contribute to cancer through their actions on genes. The notion that food has a specific influence on gene expression is relatively new.