Nutritional Physiology

Faculty

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Research Focus

The Nutritional Physiology Lab studies the intersection of nutrition, environmental physiology, and metabolic health, aiming to develop innovative strategies for preventing and treating chronic metabolic diseases.

About this Lab

The Nutritional Physiology Lab is comprised of nutrition researchers, physiologists, dietitians, and data analysts who investigate nutritional and environmental factors that alter body composition, energy balance, and macronutrient metabolism for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic diseases. The lab’s integrative approach combines controlled feeding studies, epidemiological analyses, and metabolic phenotyping to develop innovative analyses and interventions for chronic disease prevention and management.

A major focus of the lab is on the use of overnight normobaric hypoxia to promote weight loss and improve metabolic health, leveraging portable, in-home low-oxygen systems as a feasible alternative to high-altitude exposure. We have previously shown one-night exposure to normobaric hypoxia increases resting metabolic rate and reduces parasympathetic nervous system activity without impacting energy intake or appetite when compared to normobaric normoxic conditions.

The lab conducts research to optimize soldier health and performance, focusing on nutritional and pharmacological strategies to mitigate the effects of energy deficit during military training. In addition, the lab is currently conducting research to assess, in a large, diverse sample of Army Service Members, dietary intake, nutritional status, cardiovascular health, body composition, metabolic biomarkers of nutritional state, and other measures of health status.

The lab has investigated the effects of early time restricted eating (six hour eating window, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) compared to a control (12 hour eating window 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) on energy and macronutrient digestibility and cardiometabolic health. Results showed early time-restricted eating improves markers of cardiometabolic health but has no impact on intestinal nutrient absorption in healthy adults. The lab has also studied interindividual variability in energy and macronutrient absorption, aiming to identify biological predictors of digestibility and inform precision nutrition strategies. Findings indicate intestinal energy absorption is associated with glycemic variability in young, healthy adults. In addition, the lab uses large surveys, like the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), to understand nutrient intake patterns in the U.S. population and how these patterns relate to cardiometabolic health outcomes.