Nutri-microbiome epidemiology, an emerging field to disentangle the interplay between nutrition and microbiome for human health

Abstract

Diet and nutrition have a substantial impact on the human microbiome, and interact with the microbiome, especially gut microbiome, to modulate various diseases and health status. Microbiome research has also guided the nutrition field to a more integrative direction, becoming an essential component of the rising area of precision nutrition. In this review, we provide a broad insight into the interplay among diet, nutrition, microbiome and microbial metabolites for their roles in the human health. Among the microbiome epidemiological studies regarding the associations of diet and nutrition with microbiome and its derived metabolites, we summarize those most reliable findings, and highlight evidence for the relationships between diet and disease-associated microbiome and its functional readout. Then, the latest advances of the microbiome-based precision nutrition research and multi-disciplinary integration are described. Finally, we discuss several outstanding challenges and opportunities in the field of nutri-microbiome epidemiology.

Microbiome research outlook: past, present, and future

“…Prof. Jinfeng Wang reconceptualizes the concept of maternal and infant health from a microbiome perspective ( Gao and Wang, 2023 ). Prof. Jusheng Zheng provides extensive insights into the interplay between nutrition and microbiome for human health ( Gou et al, 2023 ).…”

“… The framework of the current microbiome special issue. This framework covers seven important aspects of microbiome research, including best practices for analyzing microbiomes [inner circle, Wen et al (2023) ], the regulation of gut microbiomes on the human immune system [upper outer circle, Yin et al (2023) ], how gut microbiomes affect human immune sensing (lower outer circle, Wan et al (2023) ), the role of microbiomes in gut–brain interaction [upper left, Wang et al (2023) , Zheng et al (2023) ], how microbiomes can interfere with the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in both mosquitoes and humans (upper right, Shi et al (2023) ), the application of microbiomes in maternal and newborn health [lower left, Gao and Wang (2023) ], and the study of nutri-microbiome epidemiology [lower right, Gou et al (2023) ]. The gut and brain of the figure are drawn with Figdraw.…”

Association of dietary flavonoid intakes with prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases in adults

“…In examining the relationship between dietary flavonoids and CRDs, it is necessary to consider the role of the gut microbiome [ 57 – 61 ]. Flavonoids, a diverse group of polyphenolic compounds, are metabolized by gut microbiota, resulting in the production of various biologically active metabolites [ 57 , 60 ]. These metabolites can exert systemic effects, potentially influencing respiratory health through several mechanisms.…”

Ultra-Processed Foods: A Narrative Review of the Impact on the Human Gut Microbiome and Variations in Classification Methods

“…Diet has been shown to quickly modify the gut microbiome, and the gut microbiota play an active role in human health, ranging from metabolism to immunity to disease susceptibility [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], and the microbiome has potential use in predicting the risk, progression, and severity of disease [ 15 ]. Recent human studies that have examined the associations between UPFs and the gut microbiome, separate from food that is part of a Western diet, are outlined in Table 1 , and their additional study characteristics can be viewed in Table S3 .…”