Urine Metabolite Profiles and Nutrient Intake Based on 4-Day Weighed Food Diary in Habitual Vegans, Vegetarians, and Omnivores

• ABSTRACT Background: Increasing interest in diets excluding meat and other products of animal origin emphasizes the importance of objective and reliable methods to measure dietary exposure, to evaluate associations and causation between diet and health, and to quantify nutrient intakes in different diets. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate if NMR analysis of urine samples can serve as an objective method to discriminate vegan, vegetarian with or without fish, and omnivore diets. A secondary aim was to assess the influence of dietary nutrient intake on the metabolomics results. Methods: Healthy individuals (43 men and 75 women, age 19–57 y) complying with habitual vegan (n = 42), vegetarian (n = 25), vegetarian + fish (n = 13), or omnivore (n = 38) diets were enrolled. Data were collected on clinical phenotype and lifestyle including a 4-d weighed food diary. Urine was analyzed for metabolites by NMR spectroscopy and data normalized using probabilistic quotient normalization and Pareto-scaled before multivariate analysis. Before orthogonal projections to latent structures with discriminant analysis, participants were assigned as meat consumers or nonmeat consumers (vegans and vegetarians), vegans or nonvegans (omnivores, vegetarian, and vegetarian + fish). Results: The main results showed that it was possible to discriminate meat and nonmeat consumers (91% correctly classified), but discrimination between vegans and nonvegans was less rigorous (75% correctly classified). Secondary outcomes showed that reported intake of protein was higher in omnivores, and saturated fat lower and fiber higher in vegans, compared with the other groups. Discriminating metabolites were mainly related to differences in protein intake. Conclusions: NMR urine metabolomics appears suitable to objectively identify and predict habitual intake of meat in healthy individuals, but results should be interpreted with caution because not only food groups but also specific foods contribute to the patterns. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02039609. J Nutr 2020;00:1–10.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Näringslära (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nutrition and Dietetics (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Annan medicin och hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Other Medical and Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

habitual diet

vegan

vegetarian

omnivore

meat

metabolomics

NMR

urine

nutrients

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