Perspective: Dietary Biomarkers of Intake and Exposure-Exploration with Omics Approaches.

While conventional nutrition research has yielded biomarkers such as doubly labeled water for energy metabolism and 24-h urinary nitrogen for protein intake, a critical need exists for additional, equally robust biomarkers that allow for objective assessment of specific food intake and dietary exposure. Recent advances in high-throughput MS combined with improved metabolomics techniques and bioinformatic tools provide new opportunities for dietary biomarker development. In September 2018, the NIH organized a 2-d workshop to engage nutrition and omics researchers and explore the potential of multiomics approaches in nutritional biomarker research. The current Perspective summarizes key gaps and challenges identified, as well as the recommendations from the workshop that could serve as a guide for scientists interested in dietary biomarkers research. Topics addressed included study designs for biomarker development, analytical and bioinformatic considerations, and integration of dietary biomarkers with other omics techniques. Several clear needs were identified, including larger controlled feeding studies, testing a variety of foods and dietary patterns across diverse populations, improved reporting standards to support study replication, more chemical standards covering a broader range of food constituents and human metabolites, standardized approaches for biomarker validation, comprehensive and accessible food composition databases, a common ontology for dietary biomarker literature, and methodologic work on statistical procedures for intake biomarker discovery. Multidisciplinary research teams with appropriate expertise are critical to moving forward the field of dietary biomarkers and producing robust, reproducible biomarkers that can be used in public health and clinical research.

Difference in adult food group intake by sex and age groups comparing Brazil and United States nationwide surveys.

BACKGROUND: International comparisons of dietary intake are an important source of information to better understand food habits and their relationship to nutrition related diseases. The objective of this study is to compare food intake of Brazilian adults with American adults identifying possible dietary factors associated with the increase in obesity in Brazil. METHODS: This research used cross-national analyses between the United States and Brazil, including 5,420 adults in the 2007-2008 What We Eat In America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 26,390 adults in the 2008-2009 Brazilian Household Budget Survey, Individual Food Intake. Dietary data were collected through 24 h recalls in the U.S. and through food records in Brazil. Foods and beverages were combined into 25 food categories. Food intake means and percentage of energy contribution by food categories to the population's total energy intake were compared between the countries. RESULTS: Higher frequencies of intake were reported in the United States compared to Brazil for the majority of food categories except for meat, rice and rice dishes; beans and legumes; spreads; and coffee and tea. In either country, young adults (20-39 yrs) had greater reports of meat, poultry and fish mixed dishes; pizza and pasta; and soft drinks compared to older adults (60 + yrs). Meat, poultry and fish mixed dishes (13%), breads (11%), sweets and confections (8%), pizza and pasta (7%), and dairy products (6%) were the top five food category sources of energy intake among American adults. The top five food categories in Brazil were rice and rice dishes (13%), meat (11%), beans and legumes (10%), breads (10%), and coffee and tea (6%). Thus, traditional plant-based foods such as rice and beans were important contributors in the Brazilian diet. CONCLUSION: Although young adults had higher reports of high-calorie and nutrient-poor foods than older adults in both countries, Brazilian young adults did not consume a diet similar to Americans, indicating that it is still possible to reverse the current trends of incorporating Western dietary habits in Brazil.

Barriers and facilitators for consumer adherence to the dietary guidelines for Americans: the HEALTH study.

The majority of the US population does not meet recommendations for consumption of milk, whole grains, fruit, and vegetables. The goal of our study was to understand barriers and facilitators to adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for four nutrient-rich food groups in fifth-grade children and unrelated adult caregivers across six sites in a multistate study. A total of 281 unrelated adult caregivers (32% African American, 33% European American, and 35% Hispanic American) and 321 children (33% African American, 33% European American, and 34% Hispanic American) participated in 97 Nominal Group Technique sessions. Nominal Group Technique is a qualitative method of data collection that enables a group to generate and prioritize a large number of issues within a structure that gives everyone an equal voice. The core barriers specific to unrelated adult caregivers were lack of meal preparation skills or recipes (whole grains, fruit, vegetables); difficulty in changing eating habits (whole grains, fruit, vegetables), cost (milk, whole grains, fruit, vegetables), lack of knowledge of recommendation/portion/health benefits (milk, vegetables), and taste (milk, whole grains, vegetables). Specific to children, the core barriers were competing foods (ie, soda, junk foods, sugary foods [whole grains, milk, fruit, vegetables]), health concerns (ie, milk allergy/upset stomach [milk]), taste/flavor/smell (milk, whole grains, fruit, vegetables), forget to eat them (vegetables, fruit), and hard to consume or figure out the recommended amount (milk, fruit). For both unrelated adult caregivers and children, reported facilitators closely coincided with the barriers, highlighting modifiable conditions that could help individuals to meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Spirituality of African-American women: correlations to health-promoting behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how spirituality relates to health-promoting behaviors in African-American women. Using Burkhart's theoretical framework for spirituality, a descriptive cross-sectional correlational design was used. A group of 260 (N=260) women completed Rosenbergh's Self-Esteem Scale, the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, the Brief Block 2000 Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). These women also provided the researchers with their socio-demographic data. Canonical correlation analysis identified a significant pair of canonical variables which indicated that those individuals with good nutrition (.95), physical activity (.79), and healthy eating (.42) were positively associated with stress management (.88), health responsibility (.67), spiritual growth (.66), interpersonal relations (.50), education (.49), and self-esteem (.33). This set of variables explained 56% of the variability (p < .001). Practitioners should incorporate the message of spirituality by focusing on strategies to improve health responsibility, interpersonal relations, and self-esteem, along with health-promoting behaviors.