Innovative Dietary Polyphenol Intervention to Support Cardiometabolic Health and Energy Metabolism - A Focus on Whole Foods

Cardiometabolic diseases, including hypertension, heart failure, and stroke, constitute a significant health burden globally. In response to this, dietary strategies involving increased consumption of polyphenol-rich foods are gaining interest due to their potential cardiometabolic benefits. Polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds found in foods like cocoa, tea, grapes, and underutilized sources such as feijoa, and moringa, are believed to improve health through antioxidant activity, blood pressure regulation, decreasing lipid oxidation in the circulation, and promoting energy expenditure over energy intake. Although epidemiological studies have highlighted the cardiometabolic advantages of polyphenol-rich foods, there are still considerable obstacles in fully endorsing these foods for cardiometabolic health. A major challenge is the difficulty in translating mechanistic insights from in-vitro and animal models into viable, actionable guidelines for humans in everyday settings. While polyphenol supplements provide highly concentrated doses and longer shelf-lives, whole foods are generally more accessible and sustainable for the majority of the population.

This Research Topic aims to rigorously explore how whole-food-based polyphenol interventions can support cardiometabolic health and energy metabolism. Major goals include determining the effective dosage of polyphenol-rich foods needed for health improvements, understanding their impact across populations with different health background, assessing the bioavailability of polyphenols when consumed in whole-food form, and investigating the synergistic effects of the food matrix on polyphenol efficacy. By addressing these questions, the Research Topic seeks to solidify the evidence base that nutritionists and dietitians require to confidently recommend polyphenol-rich foods for managing and preventing cardiometabolic conditions.

To gather further insights in this critical area, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Studies on the use of whole foods (including reformulated foods) for polyphenol delivery in human dietary interventions, aiming at reducing risk factors for cardiometabolic conditions and affecting metabolic changes.

• Investigations into the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of polyphenols from whole foods (including formulated foods) in human studies.

• Investigations into the individual variability in response to dietary interventions focused on whole foods (including formulated foods), which are good sources of polyphenols.

• Investigations into the effect of whole food (including reformulated food) polyphenols in the regulation of energy metabolism, including energy intake and expenditure in human studies.

• Reviews including systematic reviews and meta-analyses focused on various whole food polyphenols and how they could be used in dietary interventions for promoting cardiometabolic health and energy metabolism.

Keywords: Polyphenol, Whole foods, Cardiometabolic disease, Metabolic syndrome, Cardiovascular disease, Energy intake, Energy expenditure, Lipid metabolism, Glucose metabolism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.