New nutritional strategies to modulate postprandial cardiometabolic risk in metabolic disease

Large prospective cohort studies have demonstrated that fasting and postprandial blood lipid levels (lipaemia) are strongly associated with cardiovascular (CVD) risk. Although fasting lipaemia is indicative of the cumulative effects of composite diets and metabolic activity, they do not accurately reflect the impact of individual foods or meals consumed during the day. Humans exist mostly in the non-fasting state, reflecting our habitual physiological status in which sudden influxes of energy and nutrients increase metabolic allostatic loading.

Westernised dietary patterns promote a lipotoxic state involving the activation of various inflammatory and thrombotic pathways which promote vascular dysfunction and play an important role in the pathogenesis of CVD. In every day diet, lipids of various molecular species are incorporated in food products under different physiochemical structures which influence the duration and intensity of postprandial lipaemia. It is important to determine the factors which influence the cardiometabolic impact of food formulations in high-risk populations.

In this research group, we examine how modulating the composition of meals and the matrix of individual foods can optimise targeted nutritional strategies for the clinical and nutritional management of metabolic disease. The student will be part of a multidisciplinary team which has extensive experience in nutritional interventions and the clinical management of metabolic disease.