Diet and Disease Development: Present and Future

Dear Colleagues,

The relationship between diet and disease development or future programming in certain diseases is well known. Diet is the key factor influencing the gut microbiota composition and an important factor in the microbiome balance. Alteration in the microbiome balance plays an important role in physiology and disease states including obesity, diabetes, asthma, allergy, cancer, cardiovascular disease, aging and kidney disease. Hence, recent research has focused on using natural therapies or dietary supplements to modulate the microbiota for disease prevention or to better manage disease development. The mechanisms involved in the direct and transgenerational effects of high/low calorie intake on disease development are not clear. It is also not clear, to date, whether alteration in the microbiota due to bad dietary choices can affect disease onsets or limit disease progression, or whether using dietary supplements or microbiota modulators can limit disease or prevent future disease development.

The overall aims of this Special Issue are to describe and stress the importance of diet in disease development and future disease predisposition; understand the mechanism(s) whereby diet can induce disease development and affect future disease risk; examine potential novel therapies; and identify current gaps in the area of research. The reviews included in this issue will i) summarise the current literature (from animal and human studies) supporting the role of diet in disease onset or development; ii) provide critical analysis of the available data; iii) describe the mechanisms involved in disease development or prevention and in the future risk for certain diseases; iv) identify novel treatments using dietary supplements/compounds to limit disease development and progression; v) examine whether the microbiota diversity can be considered a cause or just an effect of certain diseases; and vi) assess whether modulating the microbiota can provide a novel therapy to limit disease development or can complement current drugs to better manage certain diseases.

This Special Issue titled “Diet and Disease Development: Present and Future” is open only for systematic reviews, scoping reviews, narrative reviews or meta-analysis studies describing the available literature and research evidence, with critical examination of the data and identification of current research outcomes and gaps, study limitations and potential advances in knowledge in the research area. Exploring the effects of diet, nutrients, supplements or microbiota on disease development is within the scope of this study. This includes all types of disease, exploring direct or future effects from animal or human studies.

The topics and themes of this unique collection include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Studies assessing the direct effect of a high-fat diet on disease development and disease mechanisms;
• Effects of diet modification during gestation on disease development in mothers and offspring, including high-calorie or low-calorie diets or diet supplements;
• Novel methods to alter the microbiota for disease prevention;
• Effect of metabolite-based dietary supplementation on disease development;
• Nutritional approaches to manage specific diseases;
• Diet composition or modulation for the prevention of obesity and metabolic disease;

• Mechanisms and pathways linking dietary components to disease development;
• Diet and endocrine regulation of food intake for optimal health;
• Role of microbiota in disease onset and development;

• Effects of prebiotics and probiotics on disease development;
• Health effects due to dietary risks in different countries;
• Food-based therapies for disease prevention;
• Novel treatment to limit disease development or progression due to obesity or high calorie intake;
• Faecal microbiota transplantation for disease prevention.

Dr. Sonia Saad
Guest Editor

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