SoDiat

The purpose of the SoDiat study is to explore the ability of new technologies to accurately assess what participants have eaten by providing them with all of their foods and drink for 8 study days. 

Why are we doing this study?    

Certain health conditions are affected by diet so understanding what people eat and drink is important to develop strategies to improve our health. Nutrition professionals currently assess diet using tools that involve people self-reporting what they eat and drink, but these are prone to misreporting as people often change their diet when being observed and forget to include everything. The SoDiat study will test exciting new technologies, including micro-cameras, novel online tools and “biomarkers” from blood and urine, to help address this problem. 

We are looking for participants who:

• Are aged 18-70 years
• Have a BMI between 20-30 kg/m2 (please ask us if you are unsure)
• Are able to eat the study meals (these include meat, fish and dairy products)
• Do not have any food allergies or intolerances
• Are able to attend the study visits (described below)

Further participant criteria and details of the study meals are provided in the Participant Information Sheet (found at the link below).

What will participants do if they take part?

Complete an online screening questionnaire then attend a pre-study visit at the Nutrition Unit (University of Reading) for 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Study visits involve: 

• Attending the Nutrition Unit all day (8am-6pm) on 4 consecutive days (Mon-Thurs) and returning for 20 min on Fri morning (this will be repeated after a gap of at least 1 week)
• Eating and drinking all the study meals provided (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks)
• Self-collecting a few droplets of blood and urine samples, allowing us to measure substances (“biomarkers”) reflecting what participants have recently eaten
• Wearing “micro-cameras“ all day that take automated images, from which foods eaten will be identified and portion sizes estimated
• Using two novel online tools to self-report what they have eaten 

Participants will be reimbursed for their time.

To find out more:

Click here  to view the Participant Information Sheet and access the screening questionnaire. 

If you have any questions, please email the SoDiat team (sodiat@reading.ac.uk) or call us on 07971 658745.