Richardson Centre Feeds Students For The Sake of Science

Nutrition study recruiting for clinical trial

JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF

The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals is in the process of recruiting test subjects for a study on healthy eating that will start in September or early October.

Curtis Rempel, the Centre’s research development manager, said they are looking for approximately 120 people to participate in four studies.

“They’re focused on cardiovascular health, obesity, diabetes and those types of things. They all have similar outcomes,” said Rempel.

Food will be provided to the subjects depending on the type of study.

Rempel said the range of involvement will vary from person to person. Some people will get three meals a day from Richardson Centre, others only one a day and some will only receive dietary advice.

During the study, participants will have their health monitored, including their cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Researchers will be adding different nutrients to the diets of test subjects. “In some cases we’re using oil capsules that we take apart and put the oil on an English muffin, or something like that,” said Rempel.

“We make all our food here. I mean some of the stuff we buy off the shelf, but most of it, because we’re modifying the oils or because we’re beefing up the vitamin E and doing different things, we have to make it up here.”

The meals participants will be receiving will be “standard North American” foods, according to Rempel. Foods such as chicken, pork, spaghetti, rice, bagels, omelettes and toast will be served to study participants depending on the study. Rempel added that foods will probably overlap to some extent from study to study. Snacks and other foods are allowed in some trials.

People receiving meals will generally eat one meal at the Richardson centre. The remainder of their meals — if someone is doing a “three meals a day” program — will be packed up to be taken home and eaten on the participant’s own time.

The Richardson Centre was designed with accomodations for these types of clinical trials. Instead of eating their meals in a laboratory, the participants will eat in a dining room that looks out onto Smartpark.

The trials will last anywhere from three to six months although participants generally don’t have to stick to the Richardson meal plan for the whole time. After a four- to eight- week period of study meals, participants will have a period in which they eat on their own. Then they come in for a different treatment and eat the provided meals once again.

In addition to free meals, participants will be compensated for their time and cost of traveling to and from Smartpark.

In certain cases there are restrictions on who can participate. “If we’re looking at lowering cholesterol, in some cases you can be on cholesterol medication and you can still participate in a trial, but what we want to do is try to have people that are sort of base-line normal.”

On August 30, the centre had a nutrition event at the Richardson Centre, which provided information to people who may be interested in participating in the studies, as well as for those who have a general interest in nutrition.

“[The event] went very well from our perspective. There were quite a few people, I think fifty-some, with a very good and wide range of questions from the audience.”

Student researchers spoke about functional foods and provided samples of the meals that people can expect to consume if they participate in the study.