A urine test could be used to check patient claims about the quality of their diets, researchers report today.
The test measures markers for consumption of red meat, chicken, fish, fruit and vegetables.
The developers at three British universities say patients could provide samples from home.
They say that an individual’s results from the test would be compared with a metabolite profile for a healthy, balanced diet.
Trials of the test involved some 225 volunteers from the UK and 66 volunteers from Denmark.
The findings have been reported in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology and come from researchers in London, Newcastle and Aberystwyth.
Researcher Professor Gary Frost, from Imperial College, London, said: "A major weakness in all nutrition and diet studies is that we have no true measure of what people eat. We rely solely on people keeping logs of their daily diets – but studies suggest around 60 per cent of people misreport what they eat to some extent.
"This test could be the first independent indicator of the quality of a person’s diet – and what they are really eating."
Dr Isabel Garcia-Perez, co-author from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial explained: "We need to develop the test further so we can monitor the diet based on a single urine sample, as well as increase the sensitivity. This will eventually provide a tool for personalised dietary monitoring to help maintain a healthy lifestyle.
"We’re not at the stage yet where the test can tell us a person ate 15 chips yesterday and two sausages, but it’s on the way."
Objective assessment of dietary patterns by use of metabolic phenotyping: a randomised, controlled, crossover trial. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology 13 January 2017
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