Healthy Eyes at Every Age

Healthy Eyes at Every Age

July 22, 2015 • Speakers at the recent Institute of Food Technologists meeting in Chicago in July discussed an essential nutrient that plays a vital role in human health. Unfortunately, few people have heard of it and fewer still are eating enough of it.
“Choline is an essential but widely under-consumed nutrient,” says Catherine Adams Hutt, registered dietician and science and nutrition advisor to The Choline Information Council®. “Only children typically get enough choline and most adults, including pregnant and lactating women, don’t get as much choline as they need. Just as choline is essential in the development of the brain, it is also critical for the development of the mechanics of our eyes,” she adds.

The “-omics” of Nutrient Metabolism

July 1, 2015 • How our bodies use the nutrients that nourish us drives much of the science at the Nutrition Research Institute. Recent advances in nutrition studies have shed light on the metabolic fates of nutrients and about the molecular actors and mechanisms responsible for the underlying processes. A major reason for the explosive advances in the understanding of nutrient metabolism has been the massive investigative use of all kinds of “-omics,” new fields of study for the mining of data-rich biological information.

Go With Your Gut: How a community of trillions affects your individual health

July 1, 2015 • Everyday we learn more about how the gut microbiome may influence health. Our gut microbial community—a super-organism, with trillions of members—has been associated with obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and immune disorders, and even moods. These findings have generated enormous enthusiasm among researchers and the lay public, as they suggest a largely untapped area for health-promoting interventions. One mechanism through which the gut microbiome may affect health is through the metabolism of food and nutrients.

Your Nutritional Needs Are as Unique as You Are

Your Nutritional Needs Are as Unique as You Are

June 1, 2015 • There is mounting evidence that small amounts of essential nutrients like choline and folate have a big impact on human health. However, nutritional studies that attempt to quantify the effects of essential nutrients often produce unclear or contradictory results.
There are several reasons for this, but chief among them is the assumption that all of us process food exactly the same way. This is simply not the case. No one is metabolically identical or even similar to anyone else – not even identical twins. We all require different amounts of specific nutrients and vitamins. Scientists at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute believe this common misconception is responsible for so many contradictory study results.