A New Urine Test Could Measure How Healthy Your Diet Is

How healthy is your diet? The most specific answer you could probably muster might be something like “pretty healthy” or “not really that healthy.” But now, a new urine test provides a more specific and reliable answer to that question, according to a small new study. The test detects and measures the levels of certain biological markers that are created when foods such as meat, fruit and vegetables are broken down by the body after a person eats them, the researchers found. [7 Foods You Can Overdose On] These markers can more objectively indicate whether a person eats a healthy diet — for example, one that is rich in fruits and vegetables, said lead study author Isabel Garcia-Perez, a research associate in the Imperial College London Department of Medicine. The test can be run in 5 minutes, according to the study. In the study, the researchers asked 19 people to follow four different diets that ranged from very healthy (high in fruits and vegetables) to quite unhealthy (with lots of high-fat foods and low in fruits and vegetables). Each person in the study followed each of these four diets: They stayed at a lab, on four separate occasions, for three days at a time, and during each stay, the researchers collected the people’s urine samples in the morning, afternoon and evening. Then, the researchers analyzed the urine samples for the various chemical compounds that are produced when the body breaks down food. Some of these compounds indicat...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news