Dietary compliance ‘can be measured via blood tests’

People's adherence to certain diets could be checked and monitored more accurately via blood sample analysis, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.

Results from the Nordic SYSDIET study, which involved 154 patients, were able to identify the study participants with the greatest apparent compliance to a healthy Nordic diet by testing for a set of diet-related biomarkers in the blood.

Serum alpha linoleic acid functioned as a biomarker of canola oil consumption, with EPA and DHA levels reflecting fatty fish consumption, plasma beta carotene measuring vegetable intake, plasma alkylresorcinols reflecting whole grain consumption and dairy intake charted by serum pentadecanoic acid levels.

This understanding could be useful in dietary intervention studies investigating the health benefits of specific diets, as these studies generally rely on self-reporting, which is often biased. This makes it more difficult to assess the real health benefits.

There are numerous circumstances in which specific dietary regimens are used to aid the management of medical conditions, such as the ketogenic diet, which has been shown to be beneficial for epilepsy patients.