We want to eat healthier, but what diet is best for us individually? Our urine may help determine the answer. Urinary metabolic phenotyping has been tested as a more accurate way–as opposed to self-reporting–to learn what a body needs to eat to stay healthy. What’s most interesting: a diet that is good for one person may not be good for another. “Diet is a key contributor to human health and disease, though it is notoriously difficult to measure accurately because it relies on an individual’s ability to recall what and how much they ate,” stated study author Joram Posma, PhD, MSC. 

Over 1800 urine samples were analyzed for levels of 46 metabolites. Digestion produces metabolites that show what a patient has consumed–fructose, glucose, nutrients, etc–and provided researchers with a window into the quality of diets. Researchers, publishing their findings in the Nature Food journal, stated, “We investigated the stability of each metabolite over time and showed that the urinary metabolic profile is more stable within individuals than reported dietary patterns.” 

Author: Razi Ann Berry