An emerging role for metabolomics in nutrition science.

Nutritional research is undergoing a remarkable transformation driven by new technological tools. Because of the complexity of the components present in food and how they may interact with the biochemical networks of living organisms, nutrition cannot be considered a reductionist discipline. More holistic approaches, which are capable of gathering comprehensive, high-throughput amounts of data, appear to best enhance our understanding of the role of food in health and disease. In this context, global metabolite analysis, or 'metabolomics', is becoming an appealing research tool for nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics scientists. The purpose of the present review is to highlight some potential applications of metabolomics in nutrition research.