Clinical and Experimental Nutrition

• Theme Leader: Professor Manohar Garg
• Deputy Theme Leader: Dr Rohith Thota

It is generally advised that people should obtain all essential nutrients by eating natural foods, but in reality it's not always possible, so supplements or functional foods are important alternatives.

The research conducted by researchers in the Clinical and Experimental Nutrition theme of the PRC in PAN examines the role of dietary supplements and fortified foods in weight loss and maintenance, diabetes, asthma, mental health, heart disease and physical activity.

Current Research Programs

Five pronged approach to diabetes and heart disease

Researchers have five new clinical trials concurrently under recruitment in the Hunter, aiming to combat type 2 diabetes and heart disease with an array of natural dietary supplements and tasty foods.

Research Programs

	Dietary management of hypertriglyceridemia in acute pancreatitis
	PAC-Food Trial - Novel foods enriched with phytosterols and curcumin for heart health benefits PAC-CVD Clinical Trial
	β-GAPS Trial - β-Glucan and phytosterols for attenuation of cardiovascular disease risk: a randomised control trial
	Saturated fats of variable chain length and cardio-metabolic health

Further Research Programs

	Metabolic effects of cross-sex hormone treatment in transgender individuals
	Cognition Study - association between plasma phospholipid omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and cognitive measures in older people
	O3FA-IR - do omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have a gender specific effect on insulin resistance? A double blind randomised control trial O3 FA-IR Trial
	Omega-3 fish oil for the prevention of gestational diabetes: A double-blind randomised controlled trial
	Lipemic load - criteria for grading foods and meals based on postprandial triglyceride kinetics
	Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) as a target for reducing the risk of Alzheimer's Disease in people with pre-diabetes
	GlucoTRIG - a novel criteria for ranking foods and meals for the healthiness
	COmega Trial - complementary and/or synergistic lipid lowering effects of omega-3 and medium chain fatty acids
	InsuTAG as a novel predictor of metabolic disease
	Food structure influences nutrient bioavailability from foods and influence human health

Selected Publications

Altmetrics	Citation
	Thota RN, Abbott KA, Ferguson JJA, Veysey M, Lucock M, Niblett S, et al., 'InsuTAG: A novel physiologically relevant predictor for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.', Scientific reports, 7 15204 (2017) [C1] DOI 10.1038/s41598-017-15460-z
	Ferguson JJA, Stojanovski E, MacDonald-Wicks L, Garg ML, 'Curcumin potentiates cholesterol-lowering effects of phytosterols in hypercholesterolaemic individuals. A randomised controlled trial', Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental, 82 22-35 (2018) [C1] DOI 10.1016/j.metabol.2017.12.009
	Abbott KA, Burrows TL, Thota RN, Acharya S, Garg ML, 'Do v-3 PUFAs affect insulin resistance in a sex-specific manner? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials', American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 104 1470-1484 (2016) [C1] DOI 10.3945/ajcn.116.138172
	Panth N, Abbott KA, Dias CB, Wynne K, Garg ML, 'Differential effects of medium- and long-chain saturated fatty acids on blood lipid profile: a systematic review and meta-analysis.', American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 108 675-687 (2018) DOI 10.1093/ajcn/nqy167
	Dias CB, Moughan PJ, Wood LG, Singh H, Garg ML, 'Postprandial lipemia: Factoring in lipemic response for ranking foods for their healthiness', Lipids in Health and Disease, 16 1-11 (2017) [C1] DOI 10.1186/s12944-017-0568-5