Polyphenols have been studied for their diverse health benefits, especially in relation to obesity and cardiometabolic health (e.g. metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). These benefits have been demonstrated despite evidence of their poor bioavailability due to mechanisms that limit cellular uptake, and promote extensive biotransformation and rapid elimination. Polyphenols are most known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Select polyphenols may also exert prebiotic-like and/or anti-microbial effects to favorably modulate gut microbiota. The reciprocal interactions between polyphenols and gut bacteria populations not only improve health-promoting microbial functions but also result in the generation of bioavailable microbial-derived metabolites with anti-inflammatory and other activities that may mediate the benefits of the parent compounds for obesity and cardiometabolic disorders in peripheral tissues. With rates of obesity at epidemic proportions, and it being a leading risk factor for cardiometabolic disorders, the goal of this Special Issue is to highlight new mechanistic evidence for the efficacy of these polyphenolic food components to mitigate obesity and cardiometabolic disorders.
Submissions to this Special Issue will focus on polyphenols in foods commonly consumed by humans. It will include full-length and mini-reviews, and full-length research articles derived from physiologically-relevant preclinical models and studies in humans that advance an understanding by which polyphenols exert their mechanism of action. General topics of interest include the impact of polyphenols on cellular metabolism, genomics, adipose browning/beiging, neurological benefits, microbiota composition and function, host- and microbial-metabolomics, and activities and mechanisms of action of microbial-derived metabolites. Submissions must be of high translational value to advance human health.