In the United Kingdom, researchers from Imperial College London, Newcastle University and Aberystwyth University developed a five-minute urine test that measures the breakdown of foods such as red meat, chicken, fish, fruit and vegetables. The researchers then developed a profile to indicate a healthy, balanced diet.
Professor Gary Frost, senior author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial said, “A major weakness in all nutrition and diet studies is that we have no true measure of what people eat. 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 healthy diet profile could be compared to the diet profile from an individual’s urine, to provide an instant indicator of whether they are eating healthily. The team will now refine the technology by testing it on larger numbers of people.