If you feel that you have gotten a bum deal in the genetic lottery then take heart; a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet can undue bad genes.

Research shows that a healthy diet may undue a genetic predisposition to heart disease.

A diet high in fruits and vegetables appears to mitigate the genetic risk of a heart attack,” says researcher Sonia S. Anand, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The finding, if it bears out, could affect many people at risk for heart disease because of a genetic variant that researchers have only recently linked with heart attack. It could also call into question the suggestion that you can’t help your genes.