Chapter 9
Biomarkers of Diet and Nutritional Health
Tracy E. Crane and Cynthia A. Thomson
Introduction
Assessment of the relationship between nutritional intake and health is dependent
on the accuracy by which dietary intake can be measured. Nutritional biomarkers
are necessary to provide the evidence base for clinical guidance and effective diet,
as well as health programming and policies (Combs et al. 2013 ). Currently, diet is
measured using subjective self-report instruments as well as objective biomarkers
of nutritional status and/or dietary exposure. Many of the observational studies that
evaluate the relationship between diet and disease has relied heavily on
self-reported dietary data from large cohorts, both nationally and internationally.
While these association studies provide the hypothesis-generating research neces-
sary to move thefield forward, a lack of precision has hindered thefield of
nutritional science, undermining our ability to accurately test hypotheses.
Randomized controlled trials with afixed dietary exposure or intervention have
been conducted on a smaller scale in an effort to prospectively test hypotheses
related to a specific dietary exposure and an intermediary biomarker of disease risk.
These trials are limited in number, and many rely on self-reported diet adherence
measures and do not follow the study sample through disease endpoints due to the
inherent costs associated with complex measures and/or long-term follow-up. This
chapter will summarize the current state of the methodology regarding self-reported
dietary instruments, discuss the role of dietary biomarkers in advancing our
understanding of health risks, and provide guidance as to where thefield is going in
an effort to improve our accuracy in assessing health in relation to dietary intake.
T.E. CraneC.A. Thomson (&)
College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
T.E. Crane
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
L.L. Sievert and D.E. Brown (eds.),Biological Measures of Human
Experience across the Lifespan: Making Visible the Invisible,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44103-0_9
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