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Background: Intake of sweet and fatty snacks may partly contribute to the occurrence of obesity and other health conditions in childhood. Traditional dietary assessment methods may be limited in accurately assessing the intake of sweet and fatty snacks in children. Metabolite biomarkers may aid the objective assessment of children's food intake and support establishing diet-disease relationships., Objectives: The present study aimed to identify biomarkers of sweet and fatty snack intake in 2 independent cohorts of European children., Methods: We used data from the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort from baseline (2007/2008) and 2 follow-up examination waves (2009/2010 and 2013/2014). In total, 1788 urine samples from 599 children were analyzed for untargeted metabolomics using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Short-term dietary intake was assessed by 24-h dietary recalls, and habitual dietary intake was calculated with the National Cancer Institute method. Data from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinal Designed (DONALD) cohort of 24-h urine samples (n = 567) and 3-d weighted dietary records were used for external replication of results. Multivariate modeling with unbiased variable selection in R algorithms and linear mixed models were used to identify novel biomarkers. Metabolite features significantly associated with dietary intake were then annotated., Results: In total, 66 metabolites were discovered and found to be statistically significant for chocolate candy; cakes, puddings, and cookies; candy and sweets; ice cream; and crisps. Most of the features (n = 62) could not be annotated. Short-term and habitual chocolate intake were positively associated with theobromine, xanthosine, and cyclo(L-prolyl-L-valyl). These results were replicated in the DONALD cohort. Short-term candy and sweet intake was negatively associated with octenoylcarnitine., Conclusions: Of the potential metabolite biomarkers of sweet and fatty snacks in children, 3 biomarkers of chocolate intake, namely theobromine, xanthosine, and cyclo(L-prolyl-L-valyl), are externally replicated. However, these potential biomarkers require further validation in children., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest AF reports financial support was provided by German Research Foundation. PK-R reports financial support was provided by French National Research Agency. All other authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The associations of sweetened beverages (SBs) and added sugar (AS) intake with adiposity are still debated. Metabolomics could provide insights into the mechanisms linking their intake to adiposity., Objectives: We aimed to identify metabolomics biomarkers of intake of low- and no-calorie sweetened beverages (LNCSBs), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and ASs and to investigate their associations with body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist circumference., Methods: We analyzed 3 data sets from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) cohort study, of children who provided 2 urine samples (n = 297), adolescents who provided a single urine sample (n = 339), and young adults who provided a single plasma sample (n = 195). Urine and plasma were analyzed using untargeted metabolomics. Dietary intakes were assessed using 3-d weighed dietary records. The random forest, partial least squares, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were jointly used for metabolite selection. We examined associations of intakes with metabolites and anthropometric measures using linear and mixed-effects regression., Results: In adolescents, LNCSB were positively associated with acesulfame (β: 0.0012; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.0006, 0.0019) and saccharin (β: 0.0009; 95% CI: 0.0002, 0.0015). In children, the association was observed with saccharin (β: 0.0016; 95% CI: 0.0005, 0.0027). In urine and plasma, SSBs were positively associated with 1-methylxanthine (β: 0.0005; 95% CI: 0.0003, 0.0008; and β: 0.0010, 95% CI 0.0004, 0.0015, respectively) and 5-acetylamino-6-amino-3-methyluracil (β: 0.0005; 95% CI: 0.0002, 0.0008; and β: 0.0009; 95% CI: 0.0003, 0.0014, respectively). AS was associated with urinary sucrose (β: 0.0095; 95% CI: 0.0069, 0.0121) in adolescents. Some of the food-related metabolomics profiles were also associated with adiposity measures., Conclusions: We identified SBs- and AS-related metabolites, which may be important for understanding the interplay between these intakes and adiposity in young individuals., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors report no conflicts of interests. Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/WHO, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/WHO., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Altered lipid metabolism is a hallmark of cancer development. However, the role of specific lipid metabolites in colorectal cancer development is uncertain., Methods: In a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), we examined associations between pre-diagnostic circulating concentrations of 97 lipid metabolites (acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids) and colorectal cancer risk. Circulating lipids were measured using targeted mass spectrometry in 1591 incident colorectal cancer cases (55% women) and 1591 matched controls. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between concentrations of individual lipid metabolites and metabolite patterns with colorectal cancer risk., Findings: Of the 97 assayed lipids, 24 were inversely associated (nominally p < 0.05) with colorectal cancer risk. Hydroxysphingomyelin (SM (OH)) C22:2 (OR per doubling 0.60, 95% CI 0.47-0.77) and acylakyl-phosphatidylcholine (PC ae) C34:3 (OR per doubling 0.71, 95% CI 0.59-0.87) remained associated after multiple comparisons correction. These associations were unaltered after excluding the first 5 years of follow-up after blood collection and were consistent according to sex, age at diagnosis, BMI, and colorectal subsite. Two lipid patterns, one including 26 phosphatidylcholines and all sphingolipids, and another 30 phosphatidylcholines, were weakly inversely associated with colorectal cancer., Interpretation: Elevated pre-diagnostic circulating levels of SM (OH) C22:2 and PC ae C34:3 and lipid patterns including phosphatidylcholines and sphingolipids were associated with lower colorectal cancer risk. This study may provide insight into potential links between specific lipids and colorectal cancer development. Additional prospective studies are needed to validate the observed associations., Funding: World Cancer Research Fund (reference: 2013/1002); European Commission (FP7: BBMRI-LPC; reference: 313010)., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests None declared., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: In recent years, an increasing number of epidemiological studies have suggested a role of polyphenols in the prevention of chronic diseases. Prospective cohort studies have typically measured polyphenol concentrations in a single blood sample and the reproducibility of plasma polyphenol measurements is largely unknown., Objective: We evaluated the reproducibility of 35 plasma polyphenols collected at an interval of 1-year. We also examined correlations of these polyphenols with food group intakes calculated from weighed food records (WFR) and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)., Methods: The study included 227 middle-aged participants from the JPHC-NEXT Protocol Area in Japan. We measured 35 polyphenols in plasma collected at two points 1-year apart. Food group intakes were calculated from 12-day WFR and FFQ. For the reproducibility analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 35 polyphenol concentrations were examined between the two points. Pearson's partial correlations was used to assess the correlation between polyphenols and food groups., Results: Moderate- to high ICCs were observed for tea-originated polyphenols such as gallic acid, quercetin, epigallocatechin, and kaempferol - and coffee-derived polyphenols, such as caffeic acid, and ferulic acid. For the dietary analyses, moderate correlations were observed for non-alcoholic beverages intake and epigallocatechin, epicatechin, catechin, and gallic acid. For green tea, higher correlations were observed with these polyphenols., Conclusion: Plasma concentrations of tea and coffee-related polyphenols, except for catechin, had good reproducibility over a 1-year period. The correlations between intake of non-alcoholic beverages, particularly green tea, and tea polyphenols, indicated moderate- to high correlations., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)