Potential of food intake biomarkers in nutrition research

The influence of dietary habits on health/disease is well-established. Accurate dietary assessment is essential to understand metabolic pathways/processes involved in this relationship. In recent years, biomarker discovery has become a major area of interest for improving dietary assessment. Well-established nutrient intake biomarkers exist, however, there is growing interest in identifying and using biomarkers for more accurate and objective measurements of food intake. Metabolomics has emerged as a key tool used for biomarker discovery, employing techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or mass-spectrometry. To date, a number of putatively identified biomarkers were discovered for foods including meat, cruciferous vegetables and legumes. However, many of the results are associations only and lack the desired validation including dose-response studies. Food intake biomarkers can be employed to classify individuals into consumers/ non-consumers of specific foods or, into dietary patters. Food intake biomarkers can play a role in correcting self-reported measurement error, thus improving dietary intake estimates. Quanitification of food intake was previously performed for citrus (proline betaine), chicken (guanidoacetate) and grape (tartaric acid) intake. However, this area still requires more investigation and expansion to a range of foods. The present review will assess current literature of identified specific food intake biomarkers, their validation and the variety of biomarker uses. Addressing utility of biomarkers and highlighting gaps in this area is important to advance the field in the context of nutrition research.