Nutrition Research Unit

The role of nutrition in promoting health, and nutrition’s role in the treatment of disease is of great importance to many Mayo researchers. Even when nutrition may not be the primary focus of their research, it is often important to control or estimate nutrient intake; due to nutrition’s influence of many areas of physiology.

In order to study the effect of nutrition or control nutrition in research, many investigators utilize the services and resources of the CTSA Nutrition Research Unit. The Nutrition Research Unit can offer the expertise and resources to study various diets and specific nutrients in a unique controlled environment.

LaVonne Oenning, the Nutrition Research Manager, oversees all nutrition related activities in the CTSA Nutrition Research Unit. The unit consists of a staff of five research dietitians and a Metabolic Kitchen staffed by six dietary assistants. The research dietitians are experts in the field of nutrition-related research activities. They utilize state of the art nutritional analysis software to plan precise diets or analyze nutrient intake of subjects.

The research dietitians provide the following nutritional-related services to aid investigators in their research:

• Assistance in designing nutrition related research projects and projecting nutrition related resources required to meet the needs of a protocol.
• Offer precise nutrition control through weighed diets, test meals or formulas that are calculated and designed by the research dietitians and prepared in the Metabolic Kitchen
• Collect nutrient data of subjects through validated food frequency questionnaires (FFQ’s), diet histories or food record analysis. This includes state of the art, on-line FFQ’s.
• Provide nutrition education to individual research subjects as well as group education programs, as part of a research protocol
• Develop nutrition related education materials
• Analyze, tabulate and interpret nutrient and nutrition related data
• Assist with writing scientific publications of nutrition related research

The Saint Marys Clinical Research Unit features a full Metabolic Kitchen which is staffed by specially trained dietary assistants. It is overseen by the research dietitians and offers the following services:

• Nutrient controlled, precisely weighed diets that are prepared using special techniques, assuring nutritional consistency and accuracy.
• Meals for CRU inpatients as well as outpatients
• Meals can be served at requested times that meet the needs of the research protocol and accommodate participants’ schedules; providing sack meals when necessary
• Diet compliance is monitored by dietary assistants

The research dietitians work closely with participants to plan diets that are acceptable as well as meet the needs of the research protocol. They meet with participants prior to their involvement in a diet controlled study to acquire food preferences and thoroughly explain how diets will be controlled. The kitchen offers a wide variety of foods to choose from; prepares meals according to the participants schedule and offers sack meals if approved by the investigator.

Questions concerning nutrition related research activities can be directed to the Nutrition Research Unit at (507) 255-2676.