Nutritional Biomarkers: We Know What You Had for Dinner!

In 2005, 21% of English adults were classified as obese; this is expected to rise to 33% of men and 28% of women by 2010. 58% of type two diabetes cases and 21% of heart disease cases are thought to be related to excess fat, and obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of 9 years. Currently obesity costs the NHS ?1bn a year, but recent warnings have hinted that it may cost upwards of ?6.5bn, however, other consequences, such as obese people being unable to work, could cost a total of ?45bn by 2050 [1,2]. The government maintains that parents do not recognise that their children are overweight; underestimate how much unhealthy produce they buy, and overestimate how much exercise their children do. In addition, only 38% of adults know that obesity can lead to heart disease, and 6% know about a link to cancer. These facts have spurred the government into a three year anti obesity campaign, called change4life which began with an ?8 million television advertising campaign earlier this year [3]. However, whilst obesity or body mass index (BMI) could be seen as an excellent marker of a poor diet, the diet can affect long term health, without necessarily being correlated with a changing BMI. For example, it is possible for a person with a BMI in the normal region to have an unhealthy diet which would make them more susceptible to conditions such as heart disease and cancer. Spectroscopy Focus Nutritional Biomarkers: We Know What You Had for Dinner! Figure 1. Sucrose fructose ratio for normal weight and obese people. a) biomarker approach, b) food diary data [5]. ? ? It is estimated for example that around 30% of all cancers could be preventable via modifications to the diet.

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