Dietary Assessment Laboratory

The Dietary Assessment Lab innovates dietary intake assessment, explores diet-health links, and evaluates interventions, aiming to fill crucial research gaps highlighted by NIH.

The Dietary Assessment Laboratory is focused on dietary intake and health with three interrelated focus areas: 1) develop, validate, and disseminate novel methods for dietary intake assessment at the individual, population, and environmental levels; 2) determine the effect of consumption of specific dietary components or patterns on health; and 3) determine the effectiveness of nutritional intervention programs in underserved populations. Because dietary assessment is inherently difficult to measure and advancement of this field is a priority for the NIH, the overall goal of the Dietary Assessment Laboratory is to directly impact this research gap.

The impact of non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) consumption (i.e., artificial sweeteners) on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk is one specific area the Dietary Assessment Laboratory is currently investigating. The use of NNS as a replacement for added sugars is a common strategy for those with, or at risk for, T2DM. Currently, 70% of individuals with T2DM consume NNS on a daily basis. Yet, current T2DM prevention recommendations on NNS usage are unclear and controversial, causing substantial confusion for consumers and healthcare providers. Although the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) suggest NNS use as a potential strategy to replace caloric sweeteners, long-term NNS usage is discouraged despite minimal research to support this recommendation.

The DGA and ADA also stated that our understanding of the effects of NNS consumption on health outcomes and glycemic indices is limited, and that more research is needed to explore potential causal pathways. NNS intake is profoundly difficult to measure, because individuals are often unaware of the types or amounts of NNS they consume. Consequently, it is challenging to link NNS consumption to health outcomes; which led to the development and validation of the only existing NNS food frequency questionnaire, which measures usual amounts and types of NNS consumed.

Further, we are developing a NNS urinary biomarker to assess NNS consumption. This research is positioned to have significant effects on both clinical and public health by informing dietary guidelines and T2DM prevention and treatment guidelines regarding NNS usage. We are currently conducting two NIH-funded trials to determine the impact of four types of non-nutritive sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, saccharin, and acesulfame potassium) on glycemic control in mid-life/older adults with prediabetes. An emerging area of interest in our lab is the unknown relationship between weight stigma and energy intake underreporting among people with overweight and obesity.

The Dietary Assessment Laboratory is currently exploring this relationship through a NIH-funded trial that aims to improve the accuracy of self-reported dietary assessment methods for adults with overweight and obesity. This research could have a clinical and public health impact by informing U.S. dietary surveillance methods and guidelines by providing an approach that is responsive to the impact of weight stigma on dietary assessment accuracy, and may help to inform obesity treatment protocols by addressing self-reported dietary intake limitations in adults with overweight/obesity.

Principal Investigator