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Review
. 2019 May 16;11(5):1092.
doi: 10.3390/nu11051092.

Biomarkers of Nutrition and Health: New Tools for New Approaches

Catalina Picó  1 , Francisca Serra  2 , Ana María Rodríguez  3 , Jaap Keijer  4 , Andreu Palou  5
Affiliations
Review

Biomarkers of Nutrition and Health: New Tools for New Approaches

Catalina Picó et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

A main challenge in nutritional studies is the valid and reliable assessment of food intake, as well as its effects on the body. Generally, food intake measurement is based on self-reported dietary intake questionnaires, which have inherent limitations. They can be overcome by the use of biomarkers, capable of objectively assessing food consumption without the bias of self-reported dietary assessment. Another major goal is to determine the biological effects of foods and their impact on health. Systems analysis of dynamic responses may help to identify biomarkers indicative of intake and effects on the body at the same time, possibly in relation to individuals' health/disease states. Such biomarkers could be used to quantify intake and validate intake questionnaires, analyse physiological or pathological responses to certain food components or diets, identify persons with specific dietary deficiency, provide information on inter-individual variations or help to formulate personalized dietary recommendations to achieve optimal health for particular phenotypes, currently referred as "precision nutrition." In this regard, holistic approaches using global analysis methods (omics approaches), capable of gathering high amounts of data, appear to be very useful to identify new biomarkers and to enhance our understanding of the role of food in health and disease.

Keywords: food intake assessment; integrative biomarkers; omics technologies; precision nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Integrative nutritional biomarkers and their interest in precision nutrition. Biomarkers of exposure include biological markers intended for the assessment of dietary food intake, whereas biomarkers of effect/function are related to target function or biological response. These biomarkers reflect not only the intake but also the metabolism of nutrients and, possibly, effects on disease processes. Biomarkers of health/disease are biomarkers of ultimate goal and indicative of improved health status and/or reduced risk of disease. Several factors (genetic, epigenetic, environment, etc.) can affect the individual response to dietary intake and its relation to health status. There is a great interest in the development of new types of nutritional biomarkers with an integrative trait, indicative of the intake and effects on the organism, including its relationship with the state of health/disease and omics technologies may play a relevant role.
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