Nutritional epidemiology

Both diabetes and obesity are major public health problems, with an alarming increase in the numbers of people with these conditions. It has long been known that there is an important balance between energy intake in the form of food intake, and energy expenditure. However, the nature of the association between food intake and the risk for diabetes and obesity is poorly understood. There are confusing messages about what type of diets to eat, and what types of food to consume in what quantities, and what their effect is on the risk for diabetes or weight gain. Dietary intake is very difficult to measure, compounded by the limitations of the methods that have been used in the past to ascertain intake. Our research is important because it will help to address some of these pertinent issues by (1) using improved methods to assess dietary intake including measurement of blood-markers (called biomarkers) of food intake which are more accurate, (2) studying the association between diet and diabetes/obesity in large well conducted studies such as the EPIC-Norfolk cohort study, and (3) by collaborating with other scientists and groups who are doing similar research to increase further the size of studies and the resources available to adequately answer these questions. Examples of such collaboration include the InterAct Study with 12,403 cases of diabetes, making it the largest study in the world of these associations.