Researchers in Barcelona have asked an old question in a new way: rather than trusting what older people remember eating, they read the chemical traces of food in blood and urine. Across twenty years of following Tuscan adults aged 65 and over, those whose biomarkers reflected closer adherence to the Mediterranean diet were less likely to die. The work reflects a broader human effort to see health not only through self-report but through the body's own record, and it suggests that what we eat may be understood more honestly by what remains inside us.
Mediterranean Diet Adherence, Measured by Biomarkers, Linked to Lower Mortality in Adults Over 65
Blood and urine instead of a food diary
Researchers in Barcelona have asked an old question in a new way: rather than trusting what older people remember eating, they read the chemical traces of food in blood and urine. Across twenty years of following Tuscan adults aged 65 and over, those whose biomarkers reflected closer adherence to the Mediterranean diet were less likely to die. The work reflects a broader human effort to see health not only through self-report but through the body's own record, and it suggests that what we eat may be understood more honestly by what remains inside us.
A team in Barcelona set out to answer a familiar question, whether eating the Mediterranean way protects older people, with a different kind of evidence. Instead of relying on food diaries and questionnaires, they looked into blood and urine for the signatures of what people had actually eaten.
The study drew on the InCHIANTI project in Tuscany, following 642 adults aged 65 and older, more than half of them women, over twenty years. Led by Cristina Andrés-Lacueva at the University of Barcelona, with partners in CIBERFES and the National Institute on Ageing in the United States, the work built an index from markers tied to Mediterranean food groups. Urine offered polyphenols and resveratrol metabolites, reflecting grape intake, while plasma revealed carotenoids, selenium, vitamin B12, and the balance of monounsaturated to saturated fats.
Over two decades, 425 participants died, 139 from cardiovascular disease and 89 from cancer-related causes. When the researchers compared their biomarker index with a standard food questionnaire, the biomarker score held a clear signal: higher scores went with lower risk of death from any cause.
Tomás Meroño, co-first author, argued that such biomarker panels deserve a place in future studies of the diet's benefits. The authors hope this approach can help clinicians tailor nutritional assessment to each older person, and the field will be watching to see whether other cohorts take up the same measures.
Researchers in Barcelona have taken a question usually answered with a food diary and answered it with blood and urine instead. Their finding: among older adults in Tuscany followed for twenty years, those whose biomarker profiles showed closer adherence to the Mediterranean diet were less likely to die over that period.
The work was led by Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, who heads the Research Group on Biomarkers and Nutritional & Food Metabolomics at the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences. Her group is also part of CIBERFES, the CIBER network on Fragility and Healthy Ageing, and of the Food Innovation Network of Catalonia. The paper appeared in the journal BMC Medicine (rendered as BCM Medicine in the source) and was carried out with the National Institute on Ageing in the United States.
The data came from the InCHIANTI project, a long-running study in the Italian region of Tuscany. The analysis covered 642 participants, 56 percent of them women, all aged 65 or older, for whom researchers had complete information on food biomarkers.
The team built an index from biomarkers tied to food groups in the Mediterranean diet. In urine, they used total polyphenols and resveratrol metabolites, the latter reflecting grape intake. In plasma, they looked at carotenoids, selenium, vitamin B12, and fatty acids, including the proportion of monounsaturated to saturated fats. Using a predictive model, they then compared how the biomarker index and a standard food-frequency questionnaire were each associated with mortality.
Over the twenty years of follow-up there were 425 deaths. Of those, 139 were due to cardiovascular disease and 89 to cancer-related causes. Once the models were analyzed, the biomarker-based Mediterranean diet score was inversely associated with death from all causes: higher scores went with lower mortality.
Andrés-Lacueva described the aim plainly: to develop an index of dietary biomarkers based on Mediterranean food groups and test its association with mortality. Tomás Meroño, a CIBERFES researcher at the University of Barcelona and co-first author, said the results confirm that adherence assessed through a panel of dietary biomarkers is inversely associated with long-term mortality in older adults. In his view, that supports using such biomarkers in follow-up studies of the diet's health benefits.
The authors frame the study as a case for better nutritional assessment in older people. Biomarkers measured in plasma and urine, they argue, could help tailor dietary evaluation to the individual rather than depending only on what people report eating. What to watch next is whether other cohorts use the same biomarker panel in monitoring studies of the diet.
Citazioni salienti
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet assessed by a panel of dietary biomarkers is inversely associated with long-term mortality in older adults.— Tomás Meroño, CIBERFES researcher, University of Barcelona
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