Targeted and untargeted metabolomics for specific food intake assessment whole grains as an example

Book chapter, 2017

This chapter provides an overview of the current available knowledge about alternative approaches to address food intakes by using dietary biomarkers. Biomarkers of whole grain intake identified by targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches will be used as illustrative examples. The chapter addresses discovery, validation, and implementation of biomarkers of specific foods using targeted, and with particular emphasis, untargeted metabolomics approaches with whole grain foods as an example of a food category important to human health. The choice of experimental design for biomarker discovery will have a large impact on the choice of statistical techniques, what can be found in the data, and also on workload of study participants and researchers. The gold standard for statistical modeling validation is to use external validation, i.e. that separate datasets are used for model construction and validation. The chapter outlines a suggested approach to discover urinary biomarkers of specific food consumption using whole grain rye consumption in a healthy, free-living population as an example.