Biomarker pAtterns Reflecting habITual fOod iNtakE: the BARITONE Project

Launched by GÖTEBORG UNIVERSITY · Aug 11, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

The BARITONE study is looking at how the foods we usually eat leave small biological clues, called biomarkers, in our blood, urine, and other samples. By studying these clues, researchers hope to better understand how different diets—like eating meat, fish, or vegetarian meals—affect our long-term health and risk of disease. This could help doctors and scientists more accurately see what people eat and how it impacts their well-being.

The study is open to healthy adults between 18 and 65 years old who have a body weight within a normal range and are willing to try three different diets for short periods: meat-based, fish-based, and vegetarian. Participants also need to speak Swedish and either eat very few or a lot of fruits, vegetables, and berries. If you join, you’ll first share information about your usual diet and health, and provide samples like blood and urine. Then, you’ll follow each diet for about a week or more, with breaks in between. People who are pregnant, have certain illnesses, or use nicotine or certain medications won’t be able to participate. This study is not yet recruiting but may be a good fit if you’re interested in how diet affects health and willing to try different eating patterns.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Healthy adult
• • 18-65 years
• • BMI 18.5-30 kg/m²
• • Willing to consume the three diets i.e. meat, fish, and vegetarian
• • Understands Swedish
• • Low intake of vegetables, fruit and berries (lowest tertile of screened participants, estimated \<100g day) or high intake of vegetables, fruit and berries (highest tertile of screened participants, estimated \>400g day)
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Pregnancy and lactation
• • Diagnosis of cancer or other life threatening diseases
• • Diagnosis of metabolic or food related diseases inluding diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, hypothyroidism or celiak disease.
• • Medication that influences the metabolism such as blood lipid lowering medication, insulin, etc.
• • Use of drugs other than medication and alcohol
• • Nicotine use (snuff, vaping and smoking)