UCLA

BACKGROUND: Dietary quality has been linked to better glycemic control, but the precise molecular mechanisms giving rise to these associations are not fully understood. OBJECTIVES: To examine the association of metabolites associated with the intake of a healthy diet with measures of insulin/glucose homeostasis. METHODS: Using cross-sectional data from 295 United States adults, the associations between 3 diet pattern scores and metabolome-wide metabolites were estimated via linear regression models, which controlled for demographic factors and health behaviors. Subsequently, the associations between the diet-related metabolites with 6 measures of glucose/insulin homeostasis were examined in similar models. A Bonferroni correction was applied to control the family-wise error rate at 5%. RESULTS: Fifty-five metabolites were significantly associated with ≥1 diet score (all P < 1.7∗10-5). When these were summed into each of the 3 diet-specific metabolite summary scores, all 3 aggregate measures showed strong associations with 5 out of 6 measures of glucose/insulin homeostasis (P = 9.7∗10-5-4.1∗10-13). CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to a priori-defined healthy diet is associated with the plasma metabolites that, in turn, are associated with better glycemia. If the associations between replicated in future studies and examined using large-scale longitudinal data, the identified molecules could yield insights into mechanisms by which diet may support glucose and insulin homeostasis.