New technology in nutrition research and practice

Technological advances bring new opportunities for scientific research to aid our understanding of human mechanisms.  This enables researchers and practitioners to build on traditional methods using different assessment tools to advance research and give the most appropriate advice to patients.  One area which has seen particular advancement is nutrigenomics; the study of how diet and nutrients affect gene expression.  This includes analysis of mRNA, proteins and metabolites and can be used as a research tool to study the physiological effects of nutrition.  This is key in understanding how nutrition can effect health and disease.  Nutrigenomics technology is an emerging science which allows complex biomarkers to be analysed and may lead to developing new biomarkers for health.  However, caution must be taken to ensure that that the data collected is integrated, validated and meaningful. Wearable and mobile phone technologies have seen vast advances in recent years which allows for continuous collection of biometric data.  This can reduce participant burden and provide more accurate, consistent data for a variety of health measures.  A recent study using wearable activity monitors carried out by The Nutrition Society Cuthbertson Medal winner, Dr James Betts, reported that participants who ate breakfast, expanded more energy during the day through involuntary movements, such as fidgeting, than breakfast abstainers.  This data would have been almost impossible to col...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news