CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center Newsroom

The Veggie Meter®: How Innovative Tools Are Enhancing Nutrition Research at AHWC

Written by Wellness Connections | November 06, 2024

Emily Hill, a Research Instructor/Fellow and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) is utilizing innovative approaches in dietary assessment, including the use of the Veggie Meter®. This tool uses reflection spectroscopy to measure carotenoids— antioxidant compounds found in colorful fruits and vegetables. Carotenoids, which give these foods their red, yellow, and orange colors, accumulate in our skin when we consume them, serving as a reliable marker of dietary intake. The Veggie Meter® measures these carotenoids by emitting blue light, which interacts with these compounds in the skin, ultimately producing a score that reflects the individual’s exposure to fruits and vegetables over time. 

Dr. Hill, who is deeply committed to improving nutrition research through more objective measurements, sees the Veggie Meter® as a way to overcome the challenges of self-reporting in dietary studies. "Asking people to tell us what they eat and drink is not easy," she explains, pointing out that self-reported data often falls short due to difficulties in recalling meals, estimating portions, and the burden of daily tracking. The Veggie Meter®, however, provides an objective measure that bypasses these limitations and directly indicates fruit and vegetable intake. 

As part of the BfedBwell program—a 6-month program offered alongside AHWC’s BfitBwell cancer exercise program to help individuals living with and beyond cancer improve their diet and physical activity patterns—Dr. Hill utilizes the Veggie Meter® to track and motivate participants toward healthier habits. Although the score itself doesn’t correlate to a specific number of servings, Dr. Hill explains it can help researchers estimate changes in fruit and vegetable intake. “On average, a greater intake of fruits and vegetables will lead to a higher Veggie Meter® score,” she says, adding that participants can find motivation by seeing these improvements. “It can be helpful to track changes over time at both the group and individual level,” she notes, emphasizing the utility of this objective measurement in long-term dietary studies. 

Beyond the Veggie Meter®, Dr. Hill is exploring other biological markers to assess dietary patterns. She has been investigating the analysis of blood, urine, and stool samples to gain deeper insight into participants’ dietary intake. “While these kinds of technologies aren’t ready for ‘prime time’ in a clinical sense, they are helping me measure the impact of nutrition interventions in new ways,” Dr. Hill explains. The long-term goal, she shares, is to develop precision nutrition approaches tailored to each person’s unique biological response. “The dream is to be able to recommend the right diet to the right person at the right time,” she says, pointing to a future where personalized nutrition could optimize health outcomes. 

Dr. Hill is cautious, however, about overselling the current capabilities of these technologies. “It’s important to be cautious when we interpret these data or consider the use of new tools for patient care,” she says, explaining that while the Veggie Meter® is a valuable research instrument, more validation is needed before it can be used to guide specific dietary recommendations. She stresses that a single Veggie Meter® score doesn’t reveal everything, as it lacks the clinical precision required for suggesting individual dietary changes. 

Looking ahead, Dr. Hill is excited about new tools and technologies in the pipeline that could further transform dietary research and practice. "Many of the advances I’m excited about involve finding new and improved ways to assess intake," she shares, envisioning technology-driven methods like mobile apps and photo-based tracking that could make it easier to objectively capture dietary patterns. Dr. Hill’s work with the Veggie Meter® and other biomarkers is paving the way for a more accurate, data-driven future in nutrition, helping both researchers and participants better understand the impact of their diets. Through her research at AHWC, Dr. Hill continues to drive advancements that bring the benefits of precision nutrition closer to reality, transforming how we assess and influence health and wellness. 

To learn more about AHWC’s research, please visit here 

 

Dr. Emily Hill is a Research Instructor/Fellow and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Hill’s research interest centers on the need to more precisely define the relationship between dietary intakes and cardiometabolic health within the context of obesity and cancer. Her goal is to design, optimize, evaluate, and implement sustainable behavioral interventions to improve health and enhance longevity along the cancer control continuum. Her projects span the translational research spectrum, from the design and integration of nutrition interventions into established clinical programs to the evaluation of clinical and biochemical indicators of health and alterations in the epigenome, proteome, metabolome, and microbiome after controlled trials. Dr. Hill is currently a NCI K99 awardee, where her efforts focus on the design and testing of a multiple health behavior change program for survivorship nutrition that can be implemented within an existing exercise oncology program using the Multiphase Optimization STrategy (MOST) framework.