Publications by authors named "Natalie C Williams"

Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the relationship between gut microbiome and host metabolism as key factors influencing obesity risk in infants, particularly among South Asian children living in Canada.
  • Researchers analyzed gut microbiome and serum metabolite profiles of 50 infants to identify differences between those who are overweight/obese and those of normal weight.
  • Findings revealed specific metabolites and bacterial genera associated with childhood overweight/obesity, suggesting that these factors could impact satiety, energy metabolism, and gut health, and provide insights for potential interventions.
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Background: Childhood obesity is a global health concern and can lead to lifetime cardiometabolic disease. New advances in metabolomics can provide biochemical insights into the early development of obesity, so we aimed to characterize serum metabolites associated with overweight and adiposity in early childhood and to stratify associations by sex.

Methods: Nontargeted metabolite profiling was conducted in the Canadian CHILD birth cohort (discovery cohort) at age 5 years (n = 900) by multisegment injection-capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry.

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Article Synopsis
  • - South Asian pregnant women are at a higher risk for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) than white Europeans, prompting a study to assess whether a culturally tailored nutrition intervention can lower glucose levels and improve outcomes.
  • - The study will involve 190 women with GDM risk factors, randomly assigned to either receive standard care with motivational texts or a personalized nutrition plan from a dietitian and health coach, using a FitBit to track activity.
  • - Primary results will focus on glucose levels during a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test, and secondary results will determine GDM diagnosis; the research is ethically approved and aims to share findings with the wider community.
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Objectives: There have been substantial amounts of misinformation surrounding the importance, safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The impacts of this misinformation may be augmented as they circulate among ethnic communities, who may concurrently face other barriers related to vaccine uptake and access. To combat some of the key sources of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation among the South Asian communities of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), an interdisciplinary team of researchers and marketing experts established the South Asian Youth as Vaccine Agents of Change (SAY-VAC) programme to support and empower South Asian youth to disseminate COVID-19 vaccine information.

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Background: Defining the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children remains challenging. Furthermore, a dichotomous MetS diagnosis can limit the power to study associations. We sought to characterize the serum metabolite signature of the MetS in early childhood using high-throughput metabolomic technologies that allow comprehensive profiling of metabolic status from a biospecimen.

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Background: Advances in metabolomics are anticipated to decipher associations between dietary exposures and health. Replication biomarker studies in different populations are critical to demonstrate generalizability.

Objectives: To identify and validate robust serum metabolites associated with diet quality and specific foods in a multiethnic cohort of pregnant women.

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Validated methods to assess diet of non-European infants are sparse. We assessed the validity and reliability of a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for South Asian infants in Canada. We developed an 80-item FFQ to assess infant nutrient intake in the South Asian Birth Cohort study (START).

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Nutritional studies rely on various biological specimens for FA determination, yet it is unclear how levels of serum NEFAs correlate with other circulating lipid pools. Here, we used a high-throughput method (<4 min/sample) based on multisegment injection-nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (MSI-NACE-MS) to investigate whether specific serum NEFAs have utility as biomarkers of dietary fat intake in women. We first identified circulating NEFAs correlated with long-term/habitual food intake among pregnant women with contrasting dietary patterns ( = 50).

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