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The anserine to carnosine ratio: an excellent discriminator between white and red meats consumed by free-living overweight participants of the PREVIEW study

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Abstract

Background

Biomarkers of meat intake hold promise in clarifying the health effects of meat consumption, yet the differentiation between red and white meat remains a challenge. We measure meat intake objectively in a free-living population by applying a newly developed, three-step strategy for biomarker-based assessment of dietary intakes aimed to indicate if (1) any meat was consumed, (2) what type it was and (3) the quantity consumed.

Methods

Twenty-four hour urine samples collected in a four-way crossover RCT and in a cross-sectional analysis of a longitudinal lifestyle intervention (the PREVIEW Study) were analyzed by untargeted LC–MS metabolomics. In the RCT, healthy volunteers consumed three test meals (beef, pork and chicken) and a control; in PREVIEW, overweight participants followed a diet with high or moderate protein levels. PLS-DA modeling of all possible combinations between six previously reported, partially validated, meat biomarkers was used to classify meat intake using samples from the RCT to predict consumption in PREVIEW.

Results

Anserine best separated omnivores from vegetarians (AUROC 0.94–0.97), while the anserine to carnosine ratio best distinguished the consumption of red from white meat (AUROC 0.94). Carnosine showed a trend for dose–response between non-consumers, low consumers and high consumers for all meat categories, while in combination with other biomarkers the difference was significant.

Conclusion

It is possible to evaluate red meat intake by using combinations of existing biomarkers of white and general meat intake. Our results are novel and can be applied to assess qualitatively recent meat intake in nutritional studies. Further work to improve quantitation by biomarkers is needed.

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Abbreviations

24 h:

Twenty-four hours

3-MH:

3(π)-Methylhistidine

AUROC:

Area under the receiver operating characteristics curve

BFI:

Biomarker of food intake

BMI:

Body mass index

CV:

Cross-validation

ER:

Misclassification error rate

GI:

Glycemic index

LC–MS:

Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

m/z :

Mass to charge ratio

MeHI-Ala:

N-(1-Methyl-4-hydroxy-3-imidazolin-2,2-ylidene)alanine

PLS-DA:

Partial least square discriminant analysis

PREVIEW:

Prevention of Diabetes through Lifestyle Intervention and Population Studies in Europe and around the World

Pro-Hyp:

Prolyl-hydroxyproline

Ratio:

Anserine to carnosine ratio

RCT:

Randomized controlled trial

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristics curve

RT:

Retention time

Std:

Standard deviation

TMAO:

Trimethylamine N-oxide

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Cecilie F. Appeldorff for her support with the LC–MS analyses, the kitchen staff at NEXS and all the study participants. This work was supported by the Joint-Programming Initiative "A healthy diet for a healthy life", through the Food Biomarker Alliance Project (www.foodmetabolome.org), supported by the Danish Innovation Foundation, and by the PREVIEW study, Prevention of Diabetes through Lifestyle Intervention and Population Studies in Europe and around the World, funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (Grant agreement no 312057), the New Zealand Health Research Council (Grant no 14/191), and the University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund. CC and LOD designed the research of the crossover RCT study. ARA designed the research of the large multicenter intervention study, together with central PIs in PREVIEW, including SDP. MPS and SDP were responsible for data collection at the center in New Zealand. CC, ÅRI and LOD developed and implemented the concept. CC drafted the manuscript. All authors revised and accepted the final version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Cătălina Cuparencu, Anne Raben & Lars O. Dragsted

  2. Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Åsmund Rinnan

  3. Human Nutrition Unit, Department of Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Marta P. Silvestre & Sally D. Poppitt

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  1. Cătălina Cuparencu
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  2. Åsmund Rinnan
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  5. Anne Raben
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  6. Lars O. Dragsted
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Correspondence to Cătălina Cuparencu.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest; however, SDP held the Fonterra Chair in Human Nutrition during the PREVIEW project.

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Cuparencu, C., Rinnan, Å., Silvestre, M.P. et al. The anserine to carnosine ratio: an excellent discriminator between white and red meats consumed by free-living overweight participants of the PREVIEW study. Eur J Nutr 60, 179–192 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02230-3

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