The Effects of Agro-ecological Farming Systems on Human Health

Status unconfirmed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Inflammatory Response

In brief

As concerns regarding the effects of agriculture on human and environmental health mount, a growing number of farmers are seeking ways to improve health from the ground up. A promising way by which a growing number of farmers are seeking to improve environmental health is by using agro-ecological practices (i.e., farming more closely in harmony with natural systems), which include practices such as multi-cropping, ley rotations, and/or integrated crop-livestock systems. Despite potential ecological benefits, there is a lack of critical knowledge if consuming foods from agro-ecological systems impacts biomarkers of human health, including inflammatory and metabolomics profiles. The purpose of this project is to test the hypothesis that consuming foods produced using agro-ecological practices improves biomarkers of consumer health compared to consuming similar foods from conventional (monoculture) agriculture. All diets will be matched one-to-one in terms of macronutrients and food sources.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05575258

Run by

Utah State University

People needed

34

Starts

2022-08-01

Expected to finish

2025-03-15

Last updated by the study team

2024-07-15

Who can join

Age: 35 and older, up to 60. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Age ≥35 and ≤60 years
• BMI ≥25 and ≤35kg/m2
• Weight stable in last 3 months (loss or gain <4%)
• Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C ≤6.4%)
• Fasting plasma glucose concentration <126mg/dl
• For the safety of the participant and proper consent of the procedures, subjects must be able to speak and understand English to participate in this study
• Stable medication/supplement use for 3 months prior to study

You may not qualify if…

• Use of medications that are known to affect the study outcome measures (e.g., NSAIDs, corticosteroids) or increase the risk of study procedures (e.g., anticoagulants) that cannot be temporarily discontinued for this study
• Strict dietary patterns (e.g., vegan, keto)
• Consuming >14 alcoholic drinks per week
• Use of cigarettes (or other tobacco products) in last 3 months
• Engaged in high level of competitive exercise (e.g., iron man, marathons, powerlifting)
• Diagnoses of active malignancy, congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Any inflammatory diseases(e.g., autoimmune diseases, coeliac disease, glomerulonephritis, hepatitis, inflammatory. bowel disease, arthritis)
• Use of antibiotics in last 60 days
• Pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the next 5 months
• Lactating women
• Persons who are unable or unwilling to follow the study protocol or who, for any reason, the research team considers not an appropriate candidate for this study, including non-compliance with screening appointments or study visits
• Participants that are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant in the next 5 months are excluded. The justification is the documented alterations in metabolism that occur during pregnancy, which would impact our metabolomics analysis in this study.

Where it is running

• Center for Human Nutrition Studies — Logan, Utah, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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