Project Leader
The Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study is a cross-sectional analysis of diet, genotype and biomarkers of chronic disease in an ethnoculturally diverse population of young adults from the University of Toronto. The major ethnocultural groups are Caucasian, Asian and South Asian. The goal of this project is to elucidate the genetic basis for variability in response to nutrients and food bioactives, and identify genetic determinants of food preferences. Recruitment began in October, 2004 with the ultimate goal of enrolling 2000 subjects. To date, we have recruited 1583 subjects (497 men and 1086 women) between 20-29 years of age. Participants completed: 1) a general health and lifestyle questionnaire (GHLQ) including questions about demographic status, medical history and drug/supplement use, dietary aversions/restrictions, and smoking; 2) a caffeine habits questionnaire; 3) a one-month 196-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ); 4) a 63-item food preference checklist (FPC); and 5) a physical activity (PA) questionnaire. Subjects also perform taste tests to determine degree of bitterness perception of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), caffeine, and naringin. Anthropometric measures include height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and pulse rate. Twelve-hour fasting blood samples are collected for DNA and RNA isolation and for biomarker determination. The standard measurements taken are glucose, insulin, free fatty acids, total-, LDL-, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as high sensitivity C-reactive protein and ascorbic acid. We also have serum concentrations of 3 tocopherols, retinol and 8 carotenoids. Targeted ‘omics’ analyses include metabolomics, proteomics of plasma proteins and genome-wide scans on a subset of the population. Selected individuals will be recruited for targeted feeding and sensory evaluation studies.
