Scientists have completed a large-scale study that led them to develop a new test to measure a person's "nutritional fingerprint" and help predict the diseases to which he might be exposed.
Diet is a key contributor to human health, though it is difficult to measure accurately because it depends on an individual's ability to recall what and how much they ate. Many apps used to monitor meals and food intakes provide inaccurate results, but the new study managed to address this problem with a five-minute urine test developed to look at molecules known as "Metabolites" produced by the human body during metabolism.
In the new study published in the recent issue of the Nature Food journal, researchers from Imperial College London (ICL), in collaboration with colleagues at Northwestern University, and University of Illinois, have managed to identify the association between 46 metabolites and different types of food in 1,848 people.
In a report published Saturday in the Medical News Today website, co-author Paul Elliot, chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at ICL, explains: "Through careful measurement of people's diets and collection of their urine excreted over two 24-hour periods, we were able to establish links between dietary inputs and urinary output of metabolites that may help improve understanding of how our diets affect health. Healthful diets have a different pattern of metabolites in the urine than those associated with worse health outcomes."
"For instance, we managed to identify the metabolites linked with the ingestion of alcohol, citrus fruit, fructose (fruit sugar), red meats, and other animal proteins, such as chicken. Nutrients, including vitamin C and calcium, were also associated with metabolites," he adds.
Metabolites' associations with health outcomes also became apparent in the data. For instance, the scientists found that the metabolites formate and sodium were linked to obesity and higher blood pressure. The research team plans to test these findings on more people. "We plan to use this new technology to determine people at risk of cardiovascular disease," says Elliot.
