Plant-Based Nutrition

Dear Colleagues,

Plant-based dietary intervention studies have shown anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits linked to phytochemicals such as carotenoids and polyphenols, which could protect against chronic low-grade inflammation associated with metabolic disorders. Higher fiber intake from fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes has emerged as an important plant-based component towards the prevention of chronic disease. Dietary fiber intake is associated with better control of blood lipids and glycemia as well as anti-inflammatory effects via a variety of gut-directed metabolic pathways. The implicated processes include enhanced colonic carbohydrate fermentation to short chain fatty acids, improved gut hormone-based appetite regulation, and gut microbial enterotypes with higher abundance of Prevotella populations, among others.

The benefits of diets focused on plant food are also linked to lowered exposure to harmful components within animal foods, including environmental pollutants, nitrosamines from processed meats, carcinogens generated from cooking such as heterocyclic amines, and noxious compounds formed from upregulated colonic protein fermentation.

The health benefits of plant food dietary patterns are complex, and have been partially elucidated via omics assessments (metabolomics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics), including the omics subdisciplines of foodomics, diseasomics, epigenomics, lipidomics, and interactomics.

Submission of research articles, systematic reviews, review articles, meta-analyses, and short communications on all the above topics are welcomed in this Special Issue of Nutrients entitled “Plant-Based Nutrition”.

Prof. Stan Kubow
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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