Dive into Diet with FoodSeq

For more than a decade, the David Lab studied the relationship between diet and the gut microbiome. Using conserved primers surrounding a variable region of DNA, our scientists measured microbiome diversity and how diet affected it. After years of research, the team realized it wasn’t this diversity that proved difficult to measure; the challenge lay in identifying the specific foods that were being consumed.

To address this, the David Lab modified its amplicon-sequencing technique to detect residual food DNA in stool. It’s a method zoologists and ecologists have leveraged for years, but in the context of human physiology, this approach was completely novel. We have since named this process FoodSeq.

FoodSeq is a novel meta-barcoding technique that detects residual plant and animal DNA in human stool. Through FoodSeq, scientists can generate a detailed snapshot of what someone has eaten.

In 2023, the David Lab made the cover of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with a paper on dietary diversity that leveraged FoodSeq technology.

Historically, self-reports, including food diaries and questionnaires, were considered the gold standard for tracking diet. While these methods provide valuable data, they’re also beset with significant drawbacks and limitations, such as:

  • Requiring baseline levels of cognition or educational attainment

  • Incompletely capturing minority or ethnic foods

  • Inducing anxiety among stigmatized groups

  • Placing burdens on busy participants

  • Decreasing engagement among low-income and minority groups, who face disproportionate risk of obesity and metabolic disease

  • Missing an estimated 20% of foods eaten due to inaccurate records (participants forgetting)

An objective tool like FoodSeq clears these barriers and, when used in conjunction with other dietary-tracking methods, can be a valuable tool in improving nutrition and other health outcomes.

To realize the full potential of FoodSeq, we’ve created a food-specific repository of reference genes. This open-source database includes nearly 900 plant and vertebrate animal species and continues to expand. Learn more here and access the David Lab Biostatistics Handbook on GitHub.

Want to dive even deeper? Check out “From stool to sequence: decoding the human diet with FoodSeq,” in mSystems, which explains the foundation and myriad applications of FoodSeq.

SUPPORT OUR RESEARCH

If you’re interested in our research and would like to help support us, please click the link below.

Donate