I’ve been diving into my genetics with the help of Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. I won’t go into the specific SNPs but it turns out I have some genetic adaptations that would absolutely destroy my body if I tried to become a vegan. Here’s a summary:

1: I can’t efficiently convert beta carotene to Vitamin A. That means I need to get the vast majority of my vitamin A from animal foods, like liver, milk, fish, and egg yolk. Vitamin A is essential for vision, supports immune system function by maintaining mucous barriers and white blood cell production; maintains epithelial tissues including skin, mucus membranes in lungs, gut, and urinary tract; regulates gene expression for cell growth and differentiation; and supporting reproduction.

2: I can’t efficiently use Vitamin D. My body is literally built to be hunting in the sun all day. While most people are sensitive to high levels of vitamin D, I am basically immune to the stuff. I need about 2-3x more than the average person, and I can tell you I’m not getting enough from sunlight working at a computer and living hundreds of miles away from the Equator. even when taking 10,000 IUs per day and tanning for up to an hour a day, my levels barely reached 39 when I tested. The app I was using to estimate projected my levels would be over 80. Vitamin D is essential to immune function, bone health, and many other things, like regulating circadian rhythms.

3: I can’t efficiently activate folate and when I do manage to activate it, my cells are slow to absorb it. Folate is abundant in organ meats, so again, my body is well adapted to eating a diet of very nutrient dense foods, particularly liver and organs. Unfortunately these nutrients are hard to come by in our modern diets. Folate is necessary for producing DNA.

4: I cannot produce sufficient choline endogenously. Choline is an incredibly important nutrient that is used to make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that regulates dopamine. It’s also a major component of Phosphatidylcholine a phospholipid that comprises cell membranes and and is integral for their function. It’s also important to cell signaling, nerve function, and without sufficient choline, the liver becomes engorged with fat, becomes a bag of bio waste and scar tissue that poisons the entire body as it slowly dies. I must get about 1.5-2x the choline of a person that can efficiently produce choline endogenously.

5: I cannot convert plant ALA to EPA/DHA (omega 3). Some people think these fats are essential, some think they’re not, regardless, I cannot obtain these from plants, if I need them, they have to come from meat, mostly fish.

6: I lack the enzyme to detox chemicals like Volatile Organic Compounds, PAHs from smoke, and certain pesticides.

7: I have fast twitch muscle fiber ideally suited for short intense bursts of movement like sprinting, lifting, throwing, etc.

8: I have slow neuro processor clearance which gives me the ability to strategically plan, focus for long periods of time, and is probably why I have insane pattern recognition skills.

9: I cannot adequately recycle b12. This is another nutrient found in abundance in the liver of animals. The others are Folate, Choline, and Vitamin A.

There are more things I’ve learned but all of these adaptations are disadvantageous in the modern world where I am not hunting, fishing, chasing and hunting and fighting in the sun all day.

Not knowing about these adaptations has been extremely detrimental to my health. When I’ve become deficient in b12, folate, or choline I’ve experienced extreme cognition issues, depression, anxiety, disordered thinking, racing thoughts and other issues. I believe I may have developed NAFLD or Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Currently I’m on my way to reversing it with adequate choline intake, but it will take between 12 weeks and 18 months to fully recover from decades of not knowing I needed to monitor this.

Understanding this information is not only going to change my life but it’s also going to prevent irreversible liver and organ damage that would have greatly contributed to quality of life issues and potentially an early demise. It’s crazy that we live in an age where I can not only peek into my genetic code but have a computer explain decades and billions of dollars worth of research to me in a few key strokes.