RESEARCH Research in the Department of Nutrition Sciences is designed to probe the mechanisms behind chronic metabolic disease (diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc.), particularly as they relate to obesity, diabetes, and nutrition. Our investigators use state-of-the-art techniques for assessing body composition, energy metabolism, and metabolic health in humans and animal models. We also study how lifestyle changes (e.g., diet, exercise, weight loss) impact health. We have two NIH Center Grants (Nutrition Obesity Research Center, Diabetes Research Center) in our department. Our faculty have published more than 165 publications over the past two years and are PIs on 60 grants.
Food As Medicine BARBARA GOWER, PHD Professor, Vice Chair for Research Drs. Barbara Gower and Amy Goss have an active research program that has shown that “what” you eat matters. Rather than focusing on calories and weight loss, the investigators look at diet composition and how it affects risk factors for metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. The investigators found that, even without weight loss, lowering the amount of carbohydrate in the diet can “remodel” the body. Specifically, “bad” fat such as visceral fat and liver fat disappears, while “good fat” (thigh fat) remains. A recent study in children with fatty liver disease showed that when the children reduced their carbohydrate intake to ~100 g per day, liver fat declined. This study
AMY GOSS, PHD, RD Assistant Professor was “family based,” meaning that the whole family changed their eating habits to match those of the children. The children randomized to the lower carb diet also lost more weight than those consuming a “USDA”-type (food pyramid, or “my-plate”) diet. Dr. Goss will soon be conducting a follow-up study in the same population to look at how changes in liver fat affect hepatic insulin sensitivity and risk for type 2 diabetes. On the other end of the age spectrum, Drs. Gower and Goss also recently completed a study in older adults (>65) with obesity. Even without intentionally restricting food intake, those adults randomized to the lower carb diet consumed fewer calories and lost weight. They also lost harmful visceral fat and intermuscular fat. Ongoing NIHfunded research is testing the hypothesis that a weight-maintaining diet with few carbs will help patients with type 2 diabetes gain disease remission by depleting pancreatic lipid and restoring beta-cell function. A second NIH-funded study is determining if “matching” diet composition to metabolic phenotype (insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion) is helpful for both weight loss and weight loss maintenance in African-American women with obesity. ■
Goss AM, Gower B, Soleymani T. et al. Effects of weight loss during a very low carbohydrate diet on specific adipose tissue depots and insulin sensitivity in older adults with obesity: a randomized clinical trial. Nutr Metab (Lond) 17, 64 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-020-00481-9 Goss AM, Dowla S, Pendergrass M, Ashraf A, Bolding M, Morrison S, Amersam A, Soleymani T, Gower BA. Effects of a carbohydraterestricted diet on hepatic lipid content in adolescents with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a pilot, randomized trial. Pediatric Obesity. 2020. Jul;15(7):e12630. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12630. Epub 2020 Mar 4. PMID: 32128995. 8
UA B N UTR ITI O N SC I E N C ES / 20 1 9 –2020 C H A I R ' S R E PO RT
