Leah Coles

Citation

Thesis Title
Predication of cellular ATP generation from foods in the adult human: Application to developing specialist weight-loss foods

Read article at Massey Research Online:

The growing prevalence of obesity has led to the development of many specialist weight-loss foods, designed to contain as little energy as possible. Current calculation models used to predict how many kilojoules or calories a food contains use generic calculation factors based on the protein, fat and carbohydrate content of the food. However, this approach may not give an accurate reflection of how much useful energy the body actually receives from a food because every food is unique in terms of how much gets digested and absorbed by the body. Ms Coles developed a new laboratory method that predicts how much of a food’s energy is digested and then translates this into how much useful energy the body receives from that food. The model has been successfully validated and is a valuable tool for food technologists developing specialist weight-loss foods to help predict which foods are the least ‘fattening’.

Supervisors
Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan
Dr Alison Darragh