Dietary Inflammation, Metabolic Syndrome, and Cardiometabolic Health: Mechanisms, Inflammaging, and Translational Insights

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) encompasses metabolic disturbances that markedly increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders. Chronic low-grade inflammation, driven by pro-inflammatory diets, represents a shared pathogenic mechanism across these conditions. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) quantifies the inflammatory potential of diets, with higher scores linked to MetS, insulin resistance, and accelerated inflammaging. Conversely, plant-based dietary patterns rich in fiber, polyphenols, and omega-3 fatty acids exert anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Emerging evidence highlights the gut–microbiota–brain axis and oxidative stress as key mediators linking dietary inflammation with neuroinflammation and insulin signaling impairment in the brain, a process underlying cognitive decline and “type 3 diabetes.” Understanding the interactions among diet, inflammation, and metabolism is crucial for designing precision nutrition strategies to prevent cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.

This Research Topic aims to clarify how dietary inflammation influences the onset and progression of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and their neuroinflammatory sequelae. By integrating epidemiological, clinical, and molecular perspectives, we seek to understand how the inflammatory potential of the diet, quantified through indices such as the DII, modulates immune activation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and metabolic signaling across tissues, including the brain. Particular emphasis will be placed on the interconnection between systemic and neural inflammation, focusing on mechanisms that link type 2 diabetes and type 3 diabetes through impaired insulin signaling and neurodegeneration. The Topic also welcomes research on plant-based and anti-inflammatory dietary patterns, gut microbiota modulation, and inflammaging as key therapeutic targets. Collectively, these studies will advance evidence-based nutritional approaches to mitigate metabolic and neuroinflammatory diseases.

We invite submissions investigating the links between dietary inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and neuroinflammation using epidemiological, clinical, and experimental approaches.

Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Associations between DII, dietary quality, MetS components, and type 2 diabetes;
• Mechanistic pathways connecting diet-induced inflammation, oxidative stress, and inflammaging;
• Gut microbiota and microbial metabolites as mediators of systemic and brain inflammation;
• Shared inflammatory and metabolic mechanisms linking type 2 and type 3 diabetes;
• Translational and interventional strategies targeting dietary inflammation for cardiometabolic and cognitive health.

We welcome Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analyses, Brief Reports, and Perspectives contributing to a deeper understanding of the diet–inflammation–metabolism–brain axis.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, Type 3 Diabetes, Plant-based Diets, Gut Microbiota, Inflammaging, Neuroinflammation, Oxidative Stress, Cardiovascular Health, Atherosclerosis

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.