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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Immunity and Disease Prevention Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #329824

Title: Design and implementation of a cross-sectional nutritional phenotyping study in healthy US adults

Author
item BALDIVIEZ, LACEY - University Of California
item Keim, Nancy
item Laugero, Kevin
item Hwang, Daniel
item Huang, Liping
item Woodhouse, Leslie
item BURNETT, DUSTIN - University Of California
item Zerofsky, Melissa
item BONNEL, ELLEN - University Of California
item Allen, Lindsay - A
item Newman, John
item Stephensen, Charles

Submitted to: BMC Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/3/2017
Publication Date: 10/19/2017
Citation: Baldiviez, L.M., Keim, N.L., Laugero, K.D., Hwang, D.H., Huang, L., Woodhouse, L.R., Burnett, D.J., Zerofsky, M., Bonnel, E., Allen, L.H., Newman, J.W., Stephensen, C.B. 2017. Design and implementation of a cross-sectional nutritional phenotyping study in healthy US adults. Biomed Central (BMC) Nutrition. 3(79):1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-017-0197-4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-017-0197-4

Interpretive Summary: Modern nutrition research tries to characterize health as more than just the absence of specific diseases. This attempt often relies on characterizing an individual’s physiologic state with regard to their normal diet and body weight, and may also consider an individual’s physiologic response to life-related stress, or their physiologic response to brief periods of exercise or consumption of a standard test meal. In the Phenotyping Study being conducted among 396 healthy adults, we are evaluating the associations of lifestyle, gender, age, body weight, environmental and physiologic factors to determine the principal determinants associated with variation in an individual’s metabolic health. A series of practical fitness, dietary, and emotional challenges are introduced and temporal responses in various areas of specialization, including immunology, metabolomics, and endocrinology, are monitored. We expect that this study will identify key factors related to healthy or unhealthy metabolic types among individual study participants that may be useful as points of intervention for the prevention of chronic diseases in an individual.

Technical Abstract: Metabolic imbalance is a key determinant of risk of chronic diseases. Metabolic health cannot be assessed solely by body mass calculations or by static, fasted state biochemical readouts. Although previous studies have described temporal responses to dietary challenges, these studies fail to assess the environmental factors associated with certain metabolic phenotypes and therefor, provide little scientific rationale for potentially effective intervention strategies. In this phenotyping study of healthy US adults, we are evaluating lifestyle, biological, and environmental factors in addition to metabolic parameters to determine the factors associated with variation in metabolic health. A series of practical fitness, dietary, and emotional challenges are introduced and temporal responses in various areas of specialization, including immunology, metabolomics, and endocrinology, are monitored. We expect that this study will identify key factors related to healthy or unhealthy metabolic phenotypes that may be modifiable targets for the prevention of chronic diseases in an individual.