Microbiome-Modulating Diets, Bioactive Nutrients, and Cardiometabolic Risk: Emerging Evidence in Nutritional Epidemiology

In the field of nutritional epidemiology, the intricate interplay between diet, the gut microbiome, and cardiometabolic health is emerging as a critical area of research. Recent studies have illuminated the gut microbiome’s role as both a mediator and a modifier of diet-induced health outcomes, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, important gaps remain regarding the mechanisms by which specific dietary patterns and bioactive nutrients influence microbiome structure and function and, in turn, impact cardiometabolic risk. Cutting-edge methodologies—ranging from multi-omics and causal inference approaches to machine learning and advanced dietary assessment tools—are now enabling a deeper exploration of these complex interactions. Despite these advancements, standardization in measurement, robust causal inference, and translation of findings into clinical and public health practice remain significant challenges.

This Research Topic aims to synthesize current evidence on how microbiome-modulating diets and bioactive nutrients affect cardiometabolic risk, to advance the methodological rigor of the field, and to pave pathways that bridge epidemiological findings with experimental research, clinical practice, and policy. We seek contributions that systematically characterize the impact of dietary patterns and functional food components on gut microbial ecology, elucidate microbiome-dependent and -modified effects of diet on disease risk, and develop or refine tools for dietary and microbial measurement and causal inference. The ultimate goal is to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue that links population-level insights with mechanistic understanding and translational strategies for prevention and precision nutrition.

This Research Topic will encompass studies investigating the connections between dietary exposures, microbiome alterations, and cardiometabolic outcomes across diverse population settings and methodological approaches. Manuscripts are encouraged from observational, experimental, and methodological perspectives, but must clearly define their nutritional and microbiome exposures and outcomes. To gather further insights in the evolving field of nutritional microbiome epidemiology, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Dietary patterns and microbiome diversity/function in relation to cardiometabolic biomarkers and outcomes

- Effects of bioactive nutrients (e.g., fiber, polyphenols, PUFAs, micronutrients, sweeteners) on microbial composition, metabolites, and health risk

- Microbial metabolites as mediators or biomarkers of dietary interventions

- Host–microbe and gene–diet–microbiome interactions influencing cardiometabolic trajectories

- Methodological advances in dietary and microbiome measurement, causal inference, and multi-omics data integration

- Interventions and translational studies, including food-based strategies, synbiotics, precision nutrition, and policy implications

- Gut–organ axes (including gut–brain, gut–liver and other cross-organ pathways) as integrative mechanisms linking diet-microbiome interactions with systemic metabolic regulation and cardiometabolic risk.

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
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Gut Microbiome, Nutritional Epidemiology Cardiometabolic Risk, Bioactive Nutrients, Dietary patterns

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.