Latest news with #Loftfield
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists can detect junk food consumption in blood and urine tests
Blood and urine tests have been found to detect the amount of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) a person eats, according to new research. Using machine learning, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified hundreds of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) that correlated with processed food intake. The team developed a "biomarker score" that predicts ultraprocessed food intake based on metabolite measurements in blood and urine, according to Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. Premature Death Linked To Certain Type Of Food, Study Reveals The researchers drew baseline data from 718 older adults who provided urine and blood samples and reported their dietary habits over a 12-month period, as detailed in a press release from NIH. Next, they conducted a small clinical trial of 20 adults. For two weeks, the group ate a diet high in ultraprocessed foods, and for another two weeks they ate a diet with no UPFs. Read On The Fox News App "In our study, we found that hundreds of serum and urine metabolites were correlated with percentage energy from ultraprocessed food intake," Loftfield told Fox News Digital. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. The Worst Foods To Buy In The Supermarket And The Better Choices Instead Large-scale studies investigating the health risks of ultraprocessed foods often rely on self-reported dietary questionnaires, which can be prone to errors, per the NIH. The new blood and urine test helps to reduce human error by using objective biomarkers, a growing area of interest among researchers. Loftfield added, "It was surprising to find that UPF-correlated metabolites are involved in numerous and diverse biological pathways, underscoring the complex impact of diet on the metabolome." Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients," according to the NIH. Chronic diseases, obesity and various forms of cancer have been linked to diets that are heavy in UPFs. Despite promising results, the researchers emphasized that the new method will require further validation before broader use. Since the current trial focused mainly on older adults, researchers say more research is needed across various age groups and diets. "Metabolite scores should be evaluated and improved in populations with different diets and a wide range of UPF intake," Loftfield acknowledged. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter This method could potentially be used in future research to link the consumption of processed foods with chronic diseases, according to the researchers. For more Health articles, visit "For individuals concerned about ultraprocessed food intake, one practical recommendation is to use Nutrition Facts labels to avoid foods high in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, as this can limit UPF intake and align with robust scientific research on diet and health," Loftfield article source: Scientists can detect junk food consumption in blood and urine tests
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists can detect junk food consumption in blood and urine tests
Blood and urine tests have been found to detect the amount of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) a person eats, according to new research. Using machine learning, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified hundreds of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) that correlated with processed food intake. The team developed a "biomarker score" that predicts ultraprocessed food intake based on metabolite measurements in blood and urine, according to Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. Premature Death Linked To Certain Type Of Food, Study Reveals The researchers drew baseline data from 718 older adults who provided urine and blood samples and reported their dietary habits over a 12-month period, as detailed in a press release from NIH. Next, they conducted a small clinical trial of 20 adults. For two weeks, the group ate a diet high in ultraprocessed foods, and for another two weeks they ate a diet with no UPFs. Read On The Fox News App "In our study, we found that hundreds of serum and urine metabolites were correlated with percentage energy from ultraprocessed food intake," Loftfield told Fox News Digital. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. The Worst Foods To Buy In The Supermarket And The Better Choices Instead Large-scale studies investigating the health risks of ultraprocessed foods often rely on self-reported dietary questionnaires, which can be prone to errors, per the NIH. The new blood and urine test helps to reduce human error by using objective biomarkers, a growing area of interest among researchers. Loftfield added, "It was surprising to find that UPF-correlated metabolites are involved in numerous and diverse biological pathways, underscoring the complex impact of diet on the metabolome." Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients," according to the NIH. Chronic diseases, obesity and various forms of cancer have been linked to diets that are heavy in UPFs. Despite promising results, the researchers emphasized that the new method will require further validation before broader use. Since the current trial focused mainly on older adults, researchers say more research is needed across various age groups and diets. "Metabolite scores should be evaluated and improved in populations with different diets and a wide range of UPF intake," Loftfield acknowledged. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter This method could potentially be used in future research to link the consumption of processed foods with chronic diseases, according to the researchers. For more Health articles, visit "For individuals concerned about ultraprocessed food intake, one practical recommendation is to use Nutrition Facts labels to avoid foods high in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, as this can limit UPF intake and align with robust scientific research on diet and health," Loftfield article source: Scientists can detect junk food consumption in blood and urine tests
Los Angeles Times
21-05-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Markers in blood and urine may reveal how much ultraprocessed food we are eating
Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultraprocessed foods, a key step to understanding the impact of the products that make up nearly 60% of the American diet, a new study finds. It's the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield, a National Cancer Institute researcher who led the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. 'It can potentially give us some clues as to what the underlying biology might be between an ultraprocessed food association and a health outcome,' Loftfield said. Ultraprocessed foods — sugary cereals, sodas, chips, frozen pizzas and more — are products created through industrial processes with additives, colors and preservatives not found in home kitchens. They're ubiquitous in the U.S. and elsewhere, but studying their health impacts is hard because it's difficult to accurately track what people eat. Typical nutrition studies rely on recall: asking people what they ate during a certain period. But such reports are notoriously unreliable because people don't remember everything they ate, or they record it inaccurately. 'There's a need for both a more objective measure and potentially also a more accurate measure,' Loftfield explained. To create the new scores, Loftfield and her colleagues examined data from an existing study of more than 1,000 older U.S. adults who were AARP members. More than 700 of them had provided blood and urine samples, as well as detailed dietary recall reports, collected over a year. The scientists found that hundreds of metabolites — products of digestion and other processes — corresponded to the percentage of energy a person consumes from ultraprocessed foods. From those, they devised a score of 28 blood markers and up to 33 urine markers that reliably predicted ultraprocessed food intake in people consuming typical diets. 'We found this signature that was sort of predictive of this dietary pattern that's high in ultraprocessed food and not just a specific food item here and there,' she said. A few of the markers, notably two amino acids and a carbohydrate, showed up at least 60 times out of 100 testing iterations. One marker showed a potential link between a diet high in ultraprocessed foods and type 2 diabetes, the study found. To confirm the findings, Loftfield measured the scoring tool with participants in a carefully controlled 2019 National Institutes of Health study of ultraprocessed foods. In that study, 20 adults went to live for a month at an NIH center. They received diets of ultraprocessed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked. Loftfield's team found that they could use the metabolite scores to tell when the individual participants were eating a lot of ultraprocessed foods and when they weren't eating those foods. The results suggested the markers were 'valid at the individual level,' Loftfield said. It's still early research, but identifying blood and urine markers to predict ultraprocessed foods consumption is 'a major scientific advance,' said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, who was not involved in the study. 'With more research, these metabolic signatures can begin to untangle the biologic pathways and harms of UPF and also differences in health effects of specific UPF food groups, processing methods and additives,' he said. Loftfield said she hopes to apply the tool to existing studies where blood and urine samples are available to track, for instance, the effect of consuming ultraprocessed foods on cancer risk. At a time when support for government research is being cut, funding remains uncertain. 'There's a lot of interest across the board — scientifically, public interest, political interest — in the question of: Does ultraprocessed food impact health and, if so, how?' she said. 'How can we fund the studies that need to be done to answer these questions in a timely way?' Aleccia writes for the Associated Press. The AP Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Euronews
21-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Blood and urine markers may reveal ultra-processed food intake
Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultra-processed foods, a key step to understanding their health impact, a new study has found. It's the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in the United States who led the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. "It can potentially give us some clues as to what the underlying biology might be between an ultra-processed food association and a health outcome," Loftfield said. Ultra-processed foods – sugary cereals, sodas, crisps, frozen pizzas, and more – are created through industrial processes with ingredients such as additives, colours, and preservatives not found in home kitchens. They're ubiquitous in high-income countries, but studying their health impacts is hard because it's difficult to accurately track what people eat. For the new analysis, Loftfield and her colleagues examined data from an existing study of more than 1,000 older US adults. More than 700 of them had provided blood and urine samples, as well as detailed dietary recall reports, collected over a year. The scientists found that hundreds of metabolites – products of digestion and other processes – corresponded to the percentage of energy a person consumes from ultra-processed foods. From those, they devised a score of 28 blood markers and up to 33 urine markers that reliably predicted ultra-processed food intake in people who had typical diets. "We found this signature that was sort of predictive of this dietary pattern that's high in ultra-processed food and not just a specific food item here and there," she said. A few of the markers, notably two amino acids and a carbohydrate, showed up at least 60 times out of 100 testing iterations. One marker showed a potential link between a diet high in ultra-processed foods and type 2 diabetes, the study found. It's still early research, but identifying blood and urine markers to predict ultra-processed foods consumption is "a major scientific advance," said Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, who directs the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in the US and was not involved in the study. "With more research, these metabolic signatures can begin to untangle the biologic pathways and harms of UPF and also differences in health effects of specific UPF food groups, processing methods, and additives," he said. Loftfield said she hopes to apply the tool to existing studies where blood and urine samples are available to track, for instance, the effect of consuming ultra-processed foods on cancer risk. "There's a lot of interest across the board – scientifically, public interest, political interest – in the question of: Does ultra-processed food impact health and, if so, how?" she said.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Markers in blood and urine may reveal how much ultraprocessed food we are eating
New York: Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultraprocessed foods, a key step to understanding the impact of the products that make up nearly 60% of the American diet, a new study finds. It's the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield , a National Cancer Institute researcher who led the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. "It can potentially give us some clues as to what the underlying biology might be between an ultraprocessed food association and a health outcome," Loftfield said. Ultraprocessed foods - sugary cereals, sodas, chips, frozen pizzas and more - are products created through industrial processes with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives not found in home kitchens. They're ubiquitous in the U.S. and elsewhere, but studying their health impacts is hard because it's difficult to accurately track what people eat. Typical nutrition studies rely on recall: asking people what they ate during a certain period. But such reports are notoriously unreliable because people don't remember everything they ate, or they record it inaccurately. "There's a need for both a more objective measure and potentially also a more accurate measure," Loftfield explained. To create the new scores, Loftfield and her colleagues examined data from an existing study of more than 1,000 older U.S. adults who were AARP members. More than 700 of them had provided blood and urine samples, as well as detailed dietary recall reports, collected over a year. The scientists found that hundreds of metabolites - products of digestion and other processes - corresponded to the percentage of energy a person consumes from ultraprocessed foods. From those, they devised a score of 28 blood markers and up to 33 urine markers that reliably predicted ultraprocessed food intake in people consuming typical diets. "We found this signature that was sort of predictive of this dietary pattern that's high in ultraprocessed food and not just a specific food item here and there," she said. A few of the markers, notably two amino acids and a carbohydrate, showed up at least 60 times out of 100 testing iterations. One marker showed a potential link between a diet high in ultraprocessed foods and type 2 diabetes , the study found. To confirm the findings, Loftfield measured the scoring tool with participants in a carefully controlled 2019 National Institutes of Health study of ultraprocessed foods. In that study, 20 adults went to live for a month at an NIH center. They received diets of ultraprocessed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked. Loftfield's team found that they could use the metabolite scores to tell when the individual participants were eating a lot of ultraprocessed foods and when they weren't eating those foods. The results suggested the markers were "valid at the individual level," Loftfield said. It's still early research, but identifying blood and urine markers to predict ultraprocessed foods consumption is "a major scientific advance," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, who was not involved in the study. "With more research, these metabolic signatures can begin to untangle the biologic pathways and harms of UPF and also differences in health effects of specific UPF food groups, processing methods and additives," he said. Loftfield said she hopes to apply the tool to existing studies where blood and urine samples are available to track, for instance, the effect of consuming ultraprocessed foods on cancer risk. At a time when support for government research is being cut, funding remains uncertain. "There's a lot of interest across the board - scientifically, public interest, political interest - in the question of: Does ultraprocessed food impact health and, if so, how?" she said. "How can we fund the studies that need to be done to answer these questions in a timely way?"
