Investigating the Relationship between Dietary Components and Cardiometabolic Disease

Project Outline:

Despite knowledge of the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet, only 5.4% of Australian adults meet the recommended guidelines for daily serves of fruit and vegetables. Current dietary guidelines recommend a high intake of all fruits and vegetables however, studies have shown that some fruits and vegetables may be more protective against cardiometabolic disease than others. Plants contain a wide variety of health promoting compounds including phytonutrients (such as flavonoids), nitrate, and vitamin K. Long-term epidemiological studies looking at disease incidence are needed to identify whether certain foods or dietary constituents afford greater protection against specific types of cardiometabolic disease, and to provide an estimate of their effects at the population level. This project will be focused on examining associations between dietary constituents and a range of cardiometabolic outcomes (subclinical measures and major clinical events) in several large cohort studies. Furthermore, this project will include validation studies of novel biomarkers of flavonoid intake.

Project Area: Nutritional Epidemiology

School / Research Centre / Research: Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute

Supervisor(s): Dr Nicola Bondonno and Professor Jonathan Hodgson

Project level: Masters and PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: January 2022