Page 25 - Nutrinsight-3

NutrInsight • Do we need dietary polyphenols for health?
Future perspectives
Do we need dietary polyphenols for health? According to the current state-of-the-art on polyphenols science, it is clear that the biological functions of polyphenols in humans could play a role for health protection. But there are still areas to explore to better understand the potential of polyphenols in preventing non-communicable diseases.
There is a strong need to continue developing appropriate nutrient database using standardized methods to analyse polyphenols content in foods with special attempts on non-extractable polyphenols and metabolites. This will allow homogenized and precise characterization of foods in epidemiological studies and intervention trials.
Further research on polyphenol bioavailabity is required, with regards to the effects of food matrices on absorption, influence of age, gender, genotype and microbiota both on absorption and metabolism. These will help determine the physiological metabolic forms responsible for activity in vivo and biomarkers of polyphenols intake. The improvement of bioavailability and the development of polyphenols with enhanced biological activity protected in foods (e.g. by encapsulation) could be a future way to propose healthier foods in general or foods with specific health benefits.
On the other hand, metabolomics aimed at the investigation of the whole metabolome (combining food, microbial and endogenous metabolomes), has been proposed as a powerful tool to characterize both the intake and the effects of dietary components on the metabolism. It will help to identify and validate novel markers of polyphenol intake and these will allow much better estimates of the consumption of polyphenol-rich foods and correlations with health outcomes.
Finally, future research should focus on long-term randomized, controlled dietary intervention trials to conclude clearly on the unequivocal role that polyphenols play in preventing chronic disease. Attention should focus on the study design to allow the effects of polyphenols to be separated from the other components of the food/diet and on the appropriate selection of controls. Further markers for established risk factors are also essential in these trials to confirm the beneficial effects of these compounds and their mechanisms of actions. The use of Omics will also open up areas for this aim. The outcomes of well-designed studies (epidemiological and interventional) will be useful to develop specific dietary recommendations on polyphenols.
The science of polyphenols is already at an exciting stage in terms of potential health benefits and we are about to witness even greater advances in the future.
25