A new journal article in Food & Function, led by MGM grad Ammara Aqeel, highlights dietary genomics as a scalable, data-driven tool for monitoring nutrition interventions and informing childhood malnutrition programs globally. The study, “Enhanced dietary monitoring using fecal genomics for childhood malnutrition interventions,” evaluated chickpea-based supplemental food consumption in malnourished infants in Pakistan.
Ready-to-use supplemental and therapeutic foods are crucial to treating childhood malnutrition, but validating compliance can be unreliable and resource-intensive. Using a stool-based genomic dietary biomarker, Aqeel and her colleagues were able to detect a clear spike in chickpea DNA in infant stool during the intervention period despite chickpea already being common in the local diet. The analysis also captured culturally and geographically specific dietary patterns, such as the use of water buffalo as a primary dairy source and widespread tea consumption among infants.
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