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I start with a question: 
can food communicate with our DNA?

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And if it communicates with our DNA, 
can it affect health?

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Let's think of a first image, the bees.

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We have three bees: the worker bee,
the drone, and the queen bee.

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All three have the same DNA,
the same genome;

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but the queen was fed by larvae

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with a different food: royal jelly.

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And as we can see,
the queen's dimensions are different.

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But not just the size:
her function is different.

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It is the only one, inside the hive,

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that can mate and give rise
to a new colony.

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So the food communicated
something to the DNA,

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because they all have the same DNA.

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And we need to go,
in order to understand that,

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into the small core of our cells.

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Two microns, enclosing
three billion bases,

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which is our two meters long,
extremely packaged genome.

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Think that in the late 90s

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it was thought that the study
of the human genome

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would have provided great answers

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both in understanding diseases
but also in understanding the DNA.

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It soon became clear,
we were only at the beginning,

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because only 2-3 percent of DNA
encodes for a protein,

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and therefore a function.

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Everything else - think, 98 percent -

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is a DNA that at the time
was considered junk DNA,

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sorry for the English term,

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junk that served as a backup

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to ensure that mutations
did not fall on genes.

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In fact this DNA turned out to be

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the beginning of a new adventure:

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this DNA was functional
to regulate the expression of genes.

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How's that?

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There are chemical markers on DNA,

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flags that are affixed to DNA
during development.

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These flags,

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which can be directed either on the DNA
or on the proteins that wrap the DNA,

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or even on some RNA, which are
the mold of anti-sense DNA,

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are affixed during development

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so that the cells
can perform their function.

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Mind you, we have
the same DNA in our cells,

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in each of our cells.

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But each cell operates differently. Why?

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Because it has the first parts
of DNA which are different,

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thanks to these flags,
these markers that say to a gene:

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you have to be expressed in this cell,

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you have to make sure
that this cell has this function,

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and that another cell has another one.

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To better understand,

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let's imagine that our DNA
is an orchestral score,

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and that genes are the instruments.

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If you play all together,

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there would be no harmony,
there would be no symphony.

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It wouldn't be the music,
there'd just be noise.

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Actually, every gene knows perfectly well,
thanks to these flags, these markers,

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when to start working,
when to play, to shut up,

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whether to play loud or slow.

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This harmony takes place
every second, every instant

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within our cells.

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And there is a study,
an extremely interesting study,

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done on mice -

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in biology we always start
from an experimental model,

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and often on mice.

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Two mothers with the same genetics
were given food to eat.

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Mother was fed with low-nutrient food;

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another mother was fed
a nutrient-rich food.

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And especially rich in vitamins,
specific nutrients.

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The result of this was,

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the pups of these two mothers
had a phenotype,

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that is, an evidence of what
they are different in -

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even the color of the coat changed,

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because the food has communicated
something different

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during the development
of these these pups, to the genes.

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So let's think about food at present.

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We have on this small planet,
as Edgar Morin says,

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people dying of hunger;
people who eat in excess;

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we waste food.

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We have people who get sick
because they eat too much, too bad.

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And we also have a paradoxical situation,
called "nutritional desert":

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I leave home, and in ten minutes

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I can not find any food rich in vitamins.

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I can only recover the so-called -

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I don't like the term,
as food must always be respected -

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food that has only calories
but no essential nutrients.

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And the most interesting thing

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is that the environment, food,
lifestyle and even emotions

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can edit DNA.

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They can talk with the DNA.

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And this writing can be transmitted -

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especially during the first
1000 days of the child's life,

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from conception to the third year of age -

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this writing can also be transferred
from one generation to another.

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There is evidence, historical evidence
of this intergenerational transfer

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of how much the environment, and food,

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influenced the health
of subsequent generations.

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This is a historical study,
which took place in Holland.

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A population of 45 million
Dutch people was studied,

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who during World War II

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was confined to a very
restricted area of the Netherlands.

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It was winter: on one side
there were the German troops,

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on the other side the frozen canals.

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This population lived
for about nine months

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eating very little,
they were almost starving:

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they even came to eat
the bulbs of the tulips.

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And it was calculated,
they ate about 500 kcal per day.

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We then studied the babies

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born from them pregnant mothers.

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These children maintained
their mothers' programming:

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their mothers lived without food,

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and when these children

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were born they were programmed
to resist the absence of food.

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When the war was over,
they had access to food

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and these children were more exposed
to health vulnerablity:

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more exposed to diabetes, obesity,
overweight, cardiovascular disease

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and even cancer.

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And this vulnerability,
this increase in risk

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also reappeared in the second generation

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and now we are studying
the third generation.

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We must think of the small scale,

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so that the small can suggest actions
to be taken on the large scale,

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to improve our society, and also
the health expectancy of our society,

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and rethink the origin of diseases.

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And that is the best way
to promote health:

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bring the science of the small scale,

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these wonderful mechanisms
that occur in our cells,

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in the great choices.

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Invest especially in the social classes

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that are less aware of all this.

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They have access to poor food,

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because it is cheap,
and maybe they have a low income,

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and they may also have
a low level of education

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that cannot allow them to access
these types of messages.

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Above all, investing in mothers,

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[Right to health / Health and Equity]

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because the right to health,
also enshrined in the Constitution,

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is also a right
of intergenerational justice.

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We must care about our health,
because it is a precious good,

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but we must also think,
we can pass it on to the next generations.

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Then we need to wake up a little bit,
and this is my awakening.

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There is an origin that gives
a greater vulnerability to disease:

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the first thousand days
of the child's life are important.

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And there is perhaps -
this is a question I often ask myself -

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a silent evolution that leads a society

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to have a different health perspective

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because their access to food is different.

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And will this evolution continue?

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Fortunately, it can be reversible
if conditions change.

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And if the mom's food, our food, changes.

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So, if it is true that it is important,

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for the health of the unborn
and of the following generations,

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the environment and the food
that mother eats,

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then we must take care of the food

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and everything that surrounds
the mothers, their environment,

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around what are the new lives.

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So we have to consider
every eating moment.

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And curate this moment.

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It can be the hospital:

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we can't forget, treat food
like yet another hotel service.

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Food must convey values:

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it must also be deemed important,
and promote health.

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Many parents, in schools,

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are more concerned
if the children do not eat,

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but never worry if the child eats badly.

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Always the worry: my son doesn't eat.

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But let's worry about what they eat,

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let's worry if what he eats
is important for his health.

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Then there are companies:

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at any time, but also among friends,

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a health marketing that can also span
across different social worlds.

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We think in every moment that we eat

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how much we can communicate through food.

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It must always be good,
but also functional to health.

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Because food is an interconnection

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between our past, our present
but also our future.

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It connects us with the Earth,
because food is work:

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it is produced and transformed,
we must respect it.

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With human beings, with the environment.

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A great English agronomist said

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that the health of man, animals,
land, water and air

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is unique and indivisible.

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Consider also: we feed on molecules,
which are carbohydrates,

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where the carbon is
in a high energy chemical bond.

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But where does this
high energy bond come from?

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From the plants!

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And plants, on the other hand,
use solar energy

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to transform a carbon molecule,
with a low-energy CO2 bond,

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into high-energy oxygen.

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For the transitive property,

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we can say that we eat
thanks to the energy of the Sun.

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So we have to respect
this kind of environment around us

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which allow us to be part of our history.

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Let's think of the scents
that evoke emotions,

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the scents of our grandmother's kitchen.

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Let's think of Proust and the Madeleines.

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Let's think about how much
food binds tradition, history:

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it is part of our past,
but it is also part of our future,

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And it is also part

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of what we can transfer
to future generations.

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Sometimes, however,
you also eat standard foods,

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with standard scents and standard flavors,

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and I think this is disqualifying

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for taste, our organ of sense.

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We have five sense organs,

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and the sense organ of taste
is a wonderful organ:

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we have five tastes through taste,

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but through the vomer-nasal organ
and the sense of smell

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millions of possibilities
to appreciate flavors and aromas.

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Sometimes the food
is industrial, very processed.

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A food that endlessly repeats itself.

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And we must invest in the culture of food.

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Which is a different culture
from prevention,

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but they can really have links in common.

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Also, nourishing and loving
are a mother's first acts.

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A feeding food is a loving food.

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And then, of course, our traditions.

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Our traditions account for a distinction

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between a daily diet,
with frugal but still tasty food,

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and a holiday that we have
to expect and wait

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so we can share a richer food
with our beloved relatives.

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Then what is epigenetics?

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From "epi", Greek, "above" DNA.

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All these modifications on top of the DNA.

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It is a bridge that links
the environment - alas, even pollution -

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emotions, food, that encompasses
all this, to our DNA.

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We thought of DNA as an immutable code:

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tall, short, blue eyes, black eyes.

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In fact, we understood,
through these latest studies -

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there are not so recent,
because they dates back to 15 years ago -

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that we can have a dialogue with our DNA,

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and we can also transfer our history

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to the following generations.

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And in fact I think, a fairer, more equal
health perspective for all.

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So that new generations

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will have even less vulnerability
to certain diseases.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)