We all know that eating well means feeling well. Accordingly, a substantial amount of research has been conducted on how our diets affect our bodies, often relying on study participants’ keeping a food journal or trying to remember what they ate each day.
But sometimes remembering what you ate or not overlooking a snack can be as hard as eating healthy in the first place, which raises the question: What if instead of asking participants to remember what they ate, researchers asked them to do something a little more straightforward?
New research from the Imperial College of London used a urine test to drill down on the links between nutrition and health to help researchers determine an individual’s “nutritional fingerprint.”
The test relies on metabolites, or molecules that the body produces during cellular metabolism. Researchers worked with nearly 2,000 study participants in the United States to identify associations between 46 different metabolites and food types. Some can be detected in urine, and, depending on what you ate, they can present in different patterns.
The study found even those who followed the same diet had differences. Generally, the better a person’s diet, the higher their metabolite profile score. Individuals with lower blood sugar also had higher scores.
The results highlight the importance of adapting diet recommendations to individual body needs. The urine test could provide key insights into the different ways people process food, helping health professionals provide dietary advice tailored to individual patients.
You could say the proof is in the … well, you know.