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Happy to announce that MEDI, our method to quantify dietary intake through metagenomics is out now. 🧬 🧪🧫🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s42... #metagenomics #microbiome #microbiomesky So what is MEDI? A combination of two things:

(1) a linked food database of more than 400 food items that includes nutrition and genomic information with multiple fallback strategies (partial assemblies, higher ranks)

One new things we added since the preprint is validation with two controlled feeding studies. In both, MEDI was able to detect the dietary intervention . There was also good agreement with some micro- and macronutrients when creating a standardized portion out of the detected food items.

We were also able to infer the onset of solid food consumption in infants and found good agreement of MEDI with food frequency questionnaires. Last but not least, MEDI could identify dietary patterns associated with metabolic syndrome in a retrospective study.

Of course, there are limitations too. We can't detect foods or additives without DNA such as added sugars or fats for instance. Also there is quite some adsorption and breakdown in the intestinal tract. Building the database is also a bit of a drag and we are looking for ways to make this easier.