Food & Metabolomics: How Your Diet—Starting in Childhood—Shapes Your Brain | Dr. Alexis Wood
The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Alexis Wood, a leading researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, joins me to unpack insights into childhood nutrition, genetics, and cognitive health. Dr. Wood's work bridges genetics, dietary practices, and brain development, highlighting how early-life nutrition can shape lifelong outcomes. We explore cutting-edge research, practical strategies for parents, and the surprising factors influencing children's cognitive and metabolic health.
We cover:
- Why childhood nutrition and genetics have been historically overlooked—and what it means for your family.
- ADHD and diet: Separating fact from fiction.
- Debunking popular diet myths: What the research actually says about red meat and processed foods.
- Cognitive self-regulation: The hidden link between diet, obesity, and ADHD.
- Precision nutrition & metabolomics: The future is more than one-size-fits-all advice.
Whether you're a parent, educator, or health professional, this conversation offers guidance on navigating the complex relationship between nutrition, genetics, and childhood development.
Who is Dr. Alexis Wood?
Dr. Alexis Wood, Ph.D., F.A.H.A., is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics–Nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine’s USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center. Her research integrates genetics, child development, and nutrition, focusing on how genetic factors influence responses to diet and behavior.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Find Dr. Alexis Wood at:
- Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lekkiwood/
- Baylor College of Medicine - https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/alexis-wood-33281
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center - https://www.bcm.edu/research/research-centers/usda-ars-childrens-nutrition-research-center
- Alexis Wood Lab - https://www.bcm.edu/research/faculty-labs/alexis-lekki-wood-lab
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction and overview
01:25 - Current landscape of childhood nutrition and genetics
04:00 - Challenges and opportunities in studying child nutrition
07:39 - ADHD, genetics, and dietary myths
12:23 - Clinical evidence on diet and ADHD
14:18 - The Mediterranean diet and childhood nutrition
17:48 - Debunking myths around red meat consumption
22:55 - Metabolomics: Precision nutrition’s new frontier
28:39 - The genetics of cognitive self-regulation and obesity
34:50 - Nutrition’s role in cognitive health across the lifespan
39:57 - What are metabolites and why do they matter?
44:29 - Interpersonal variability in nutrition responses
48:52 - The milestone "MILES" metabolomics study
52:21 - Processed foods: Balancing health and reality
58:19 - Early life behaviors and aging
Disclaimer: The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Podcast and YouTube are for general information purposes only and do not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast, YouTube, or materials linked from this podcast or YouTube is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professional for any such conditions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Alzheimer's doesn't start with memory loss. It starts silently, decades earlier, in places you'd |
| 0:07.2 | never expect. Today's guest might completely change how you think about your brain, your food, |
| 0:13.0 | and your future. Dr. Alexis Wood is a leading researcher at Baylor College of Medicine. |
| 0:19.5 | She studies how your genetics and your diet |
| 0:22.1 | interact to shape your brain from the moment you're born to the moment it starts to fade. |
| 0:27.5 | We're diving into some big questions today. What is it that we know about childhood nutrition? |
| 0:35.3 | Can we affect ADHD just by nutrition alone? What role does the current |
| 0:41.8 | science information landscape have to tell us about how we can feed our children? This conversation |
| 0:48.5 | doesn't just focus on what's going wrong. It's about what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones, |
| 0:55.0 | what to eat, what to look for, and how to fight back. Because the earlier you understand this, |
| 1:00.6 | the better the chance you have of changing your brain's future. And it starts with changing |
| 1:07.9 | our children's present. |
| 1:18.6 | Where are we in the landscape of childhood nutrition and genetics? I want to really hear and focus in on the research that you're doing and the questions that you're asking. |
| 1:24.6 | Okay, so I think we have basically nothing in children in child nutrition and genetics at all bringing |
| 1:33.5 | those together. |
| 1:34.7 | I would say that even in child nutrition, it has been overlooked. |
| 1:40.5 | In fact, the history, so, you know, every five years, as you well know, the USDA, I'm sure you're |
| 1:46.0 | I'm sure you're not. |
| 1:47.0 | Right, your last... |
| 1:48.0 | Just still waiting. |
| 1:49.0 | I'm sure I talked about it. |
| 1:50.0 | Still waiting. |
... |
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