Dr. Mark Hyman, author of 'UltraMetabolism,' talks with AOL's Book Maven Bethanne Patrick about the the role genes play in your diet and weight-loss plan. Here are excerpts from the interview:

Bethanne Patrick: I'm speaking, again, with Dr. Mark Hyman the author of, 'Ultra Metabolism.' This is the simple plan for automatic weight loss. What does that mean?

Dr. Mark Hyman: I never set out to be a weight loss doctor. I was a medical director at Kenya Ranch and people came to me with health problems. As I dealt with their underlying health problems, the pounds took care of themselves. I [have] learned that there are some real issues underlying why most people struggle with their weight and they're not being addressed by conventional diets. We have to learn how to live in harmony with our DNA and our genes. If we eat in harmony with our genes, [the] body takes care of the rest. It's automatic because when we turn on the right gene messages everything happens and flows right from there. We have control of our appetite, our weight falls off and our energy increases -- it's often quite miraculous. What I learned in medical school is how to treat symptoms. Now I treat the underlying causes of weight gain and obesity with 'UltraMetabolism.'

Bethanne Patrick: Now, what can people expect when they buy their copy of Ultra Metabolism? Is there a plan they should follow? What can the average person expect from your plan?

Dr. Mark Hyman: I tried to translate everything I knew about weight loss and metabolism into a very practical how-to program. There's a lot of fun background material. The first part of the book provides a break down of some of the beliefs and the myths that we believe that make us fat. The second part really describes the underlying causes and the keys to ultra metabolism which helps you decide whether or not you have issues in each of these areas. For example, whether you have inflammation that's causing weight problems or thyroid issues, or whether stress is a big factor or whether you have hormones that are out of control that are driving your appetite. There are quizzes in each chapter to help you identify whether you have a problem -- this is really about personalized health and personalized weight-loss. Then in each chapter there are specific steps on how to navigate through a particular issue if you have that problem and how to actually make a huge difference in that [problem] for you. The last section of the book is really sort of the owner's manual, the instruction book for those who own a body. If you own a body, there's an important message in here for you -- which is, how do you take care of it? Nobody had a little book strapped to their leg when they came out of their mother's birth canal telling them what to eat or how much they should exercise.

Bethanne Patrick: That would have helped!

Dr. Mark Hyman: It would be nice, right? We'd get it with our computers, with our cell phones, with our cars...

Bethanne Patrick: Wait, wait, Mark, actually I think what your book really does say is we do have that little book. Your science is called nutrogynomics, how food talks to your genes. So in a way, our genes are like little books that have this information. UltraMetabolism is showing us how to read them.

Dr. Mark Hyman: Absolutely. That is put so perfectly. I think all we have to do is learn what the basic things are that get us to thrive. [These are] whole foods, colorful fruits and vegetables, lots of fiber and omega-3 fats. [We need to] get rid of the things that keep us from thriving, that block our metabolism. What I call the "anti-nutrients" like processed food, trans-fat and high-fructose corn syrup. Provide a little bit of activity in terms of exercise, little bit of stress reduction, and then simply just find a way to get our bodies back in sync and when we do that, everything takes care of itself.