Poor eating habits and other lifestyle choices can have a significant impact on the risk of common chronic diseases, especially obesity, heart disease or diabetes. Dealing with these health issues is a major public health priority in the UK and around the world.
Traditionally, nutrition research has focused on studying individual components of our diets, such as specific nutrients or foods. However, this project takes a new approach by looking at the whole diet, namely dietary patterns, as well as clusters of lifestyle behaviours to understand how different aspects of our diets and lifestyles interact and affect our health. By combining this information with omics data (data related to our genes and metabolites), we can gain a deeper understanding of chronic diseases, discover new mechanisms that influence their development and identify potential new interventions.
The goal of this project is to build on previous research that identified dietary and lifestyle patterns strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mortality in the UK Biobank population. We will use advanced methods in nutrition precision to investigate the long-term associations between these dietary patterns and lifestyle behaviours on the risk of non-communicable diseases and explore their underlying biological mechanisms. We also aim to identify specific metabolic and -omic signatures (biological markers) related to diet and other behaviours that impact health. We anticipate this project will last a minimum of 36 months.
This project is different from conventional approaches as it considers the complexity of human behaviour, allowing a better understanding of the relationship with health risks. The results of this study have the potential to shape future dietary and lifestyle recommendations for preventing non-communicable diseases.
