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Innovative Technologies for Dietary Assessment

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition Methodology & Assessment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 February 2025) | Viewed by 3353

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Computer Simulation, Genomics and Data Analysis Laboratory, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of the Environment, University of the Aegean, Lemnos, Greece
2. Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, GOS Institute of Child Health, UCL, London, UK
3. Department of Cardiovascular Science, College of Life Science, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
4. NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK
Interests: dietary assessment tools; diet and health inequalities; nutritional epidemiology; lifecourse epidemiology; measurement error; reference equations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on “Innovative Technologies for Dietary Assessment” emphasises the pivotal role of dietary intake assessment at both individual and population levels in elucidating the relationship between diet and health outcomes. The integration of new technologies has transformed traditional paper-based dietary assessment methods, rendering self-monitoring more practical and accurate. Artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and smart devices, including smartphones and wearable sensors, are revolutionising dietary assessment by enhancing portion size estimation and providing real-time, personalised nutritional recommendations. As the field of dietary assessment evolves with technological advancements, this issue explores the potential of AI and other innovative tools to improve dietary measurement accuracy and promote better health outcomes.

We request original articles related to this topic, including research papers and reviews, with topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Technological Transformation of Dietary Assessment;
  • Innovative Tools and Technologies;
  • Portion Size Assessment Technologies;
  • Challenges in Dietary Measurement;
  • Role of AI in Nutrition;
  • Recent Technological Advances;
  • Interdisciplinary Research Approaches.

Dr. Vasiliki Bountziouka
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • dietary assessment
  • nutritional assessment
  • artificial intelligence (AI)
  • digital technologies
  • wearable sensors
  • precision nutrition
  • software application.

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1336 KiB  
Article
AI-Powered Analysis of Weight Loss Reports from Reddit: Unlocking Social Media’s Potential in Dietary Assessment
by Efstathios Kaloudis, Victoria Kouti, Foteini-Maria Triantafillou, Patroklos Ventouris, Rafail Pavlidis and Vasiliki Bountziouka
Nutrients 2025, 17(5), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17050818 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 2817
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The increasing use of social media for sharing health and diet experiences presents new opportunities for nutritional research and dietary assessment. Large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) offer innovative approaches to analyzing self-reported data from online communities. This study [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: The increasing use of social media for sharing health and diet experiences presents new opportunities for nutritional research and dietary assessment. Large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) offer innovative approaches to analyzing self-reported data from online communities. This study explores weight loss experiences associated with the ketogenic diet (KD) using user-generated content from Reddit, aiming to identify trends and potential biases in self-reported outcomes. Methods: A dataset of 35,079 Reddit posts related to KD was collected and processed. Posts mentioning weight loss, diet duration, and additional factors (age, gender, physical activity, health conditions) were identified, yielding 2416 complete cases. Descriptive statistics summarized weight loss distributions and diet adherence patterns, while linear regression models examined factors associated with weight loss. Results: The median reported weight loss was 10.9 kg (IQR: 4.4–22.7 kg). Diet adherence varied with 36.3% of users following KD for up to 30 days and 7.8% for more than a year. Metabolic (27%) and cardiovascular disorders (17%) were the most frequently reported health conditions. Adherence beyond one year was associated with an average weight loss of 28.2 kg (95% CI: 25.5–30.9) compared to up to 30 days. Male gender was associated with an additional weight loss of 5.2 kg (95% CI: 3.8–6.6) compared to females. Conclusions: Findings suggest KD may lead to substantial weight loss based on self-reported online data. This study highlights the value of social media data in nutritional research, uncovering hidden dietary patterns that could inform public health strategies and personalized nutrition plans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies for Dietary Assessment)
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