Urinalysis is usually comprised of several chemical, microscopic and visual examinations used to detect cells, cell fragments and substances such as crystals or casts in the urine. It is done to screen for and help diagnose conditions such as urinary tract infections, kidney disorders, liver problems, diabetes or other metabolic conditions.
But there’s now a new urine test that is not to detect some common diseases, but to measure the health of a person’s diet.
Researchers from the Imperial College London, Newcastle University and Aberystwyth University have developed a five-minute test that evaluates biological markers in urine created by the breakdown of foods such as red meat, chicken, fish and fruit and vegetables.
Other than that, they made the analysis to provide an indication of how much fat, sugar, fibre and protein a person has eaten.
This is intended for people who need to record their diets but advertently lie in their reports. Studies suggest that they put more healthy food like fruits and vegetables and remove the unhealthy ones even if they are not true. Accurate reporting in food diaries is critical because it could spell an increase in a person’s weight.
“A major weakness in all nutrition and diet studies is that we have no true measure of what people eat,” says Gary Frost, leader of the study and professor from the Department of Medicine at Imperial.
“We rely solely on people keeping logs of their daily diets—but studies suggest around 60 per cent of people misreport what they eat to some extent. This test could be the first independent indicator of the quality of a person’s diet—and what they are really eating,” he explains.
To make the urine test, 19 people were asked to volunteer in following four different diets that range from very healthy to very unhealthy according to the World Health Organisation dietary guidelines. These diets were designed to advise on the prevention of conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
For three days in a London research facility, the volunteers strictly followed the diets and provided urine samples throughout the day. The researchers used these samples in assessing for hundreds of compounds, called metabolites, produced when certain foods are broken down in the body.
Using the data, they were able to develop a urine metabolite profile that indicated a healthy, balanced diet with a good intake of fruit and vegetables. This could be compared to another person’s urine.
In order to validate the accuracy of the test, 291 other volunteers – 225 from the UK and 66 from Denmark – have provided urine samples with their attached diet diaries. The analysis of the samples revealed that the test was able to accurately predict the diet of the 291 volunteers.
“For the first time, this research offers an objective way of assessing the overall healthiness of people’s diets without all the hassles, biases and errors of recording what they’ve eaten,” tells Professor John Mathers, co-author from the Human Nutrition Research Centre at Newcastle University.
The researchers admit that that the work is still at an early stage and hope that with future development the test will be able to track patients’ diets more accurately.
Source: Medical Express
