Whole-Food Bioactives and Cardiometabolic Health: Human Clinical Evidence

Translating mechanistic insights from laboratory models into real-world dietary guidelines remains a major challenge in public health. While isolated supplements offer concentrated doses, whole foods are more sustainable and culturally accessible. Emerging clinical evidence highlights that the natural food matrix significantly influences how bioactive compounds are absorbed and utilized to support cardiometabolic and energy metabolism.

This Research Topic focuses on clinical evidence demonstrating how whole-food-based dietary interventions—rich in bioactive compounds—affect cardiometabolic health and energy expenditure. We aim to consolidate rigorous human evidence that nutritionists and clinicians can use to design practical dietary strategies for preventing and managing cardiometabolic diseases.

Only human clinical trials (acute or chronic) qualify as original research; pre-clinical, in-vitro, and animal studies are out of scope. Interventions must use whole or reformulated foods in their natural matrix — isolated synthetic supplements or foods enriched with extracted compounds will not be considered.

We welcome original research and systematic reviews/meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) covering the following themes:

• Human Dietary Interventions: Clinical trials evaluating whole or reformulated foods rich in bioactives (e.g., polyphenols, carotenoids, phytosterols, organosulfur compounds, bioactive peptides) on cardiometabolic risk factors.
• Bioavailability & Bioaccessibility: Human trials investigating how the whole-food matrix impacts the absorption and metabolism of active dietary compounds.
• Individual Variability: Clinical insights into how genetics, metabolic health backgrounds, or gut microbiota influence individual responses to whole-food interventions.
• Energy Metabolism: Human studies assessing the impact of whole-food bioactives on energy intake, satiety, and energy expenditure.
• Systematic Reviews: High-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses strictly focused on human RCTs examining whole-food bioactives and cardiometabolic disease outcomes.

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: whole food, cardiometabolic, food, bioactives, clinical trials

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.