Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun 6;12(12):2286.
doi: 10.3390/foods12122286.

Food System Transformation and Gut Microbiota Transition: Evidence on Advancing Obesity, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancers-A Narrative Review

Jasper Okoro Godwin Elechi  1 , Rosa Sirianni  1 , Francesca Luisa Conforti  1 , Erika Cione  1 , Michele Pellegrino  1
Affiliations
Review

Food System Transformation and Gut Microbiota Transition: Evidence on Advancing Obesity, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancers-A Narrative Review

Jasper Okoro Godwin Elechi et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Food, a vital component of our daily life, is fundamental to our health and well-being, and the knowledge and practices relating to food have been passed down from countless generations of ancestors. Systems may be used to describe this extremely extensive and varied body of agricultural and gastronomic knowledge that has been gathered via evolutionary processes. The gut microbiota also underwent changes as the food system did, and these alterations had a variety of effects on human health. In recent decades, the gut microbiome has gained attention due to its health benefits as well as its pathological effects on human health. Many studies have shown that a person's gut microbiota partially determines the nutritional value of food and that diet, in turn, shapes both the microbiota and the microbiome. The current narrative review aims to explain how changes in the food system over time affect the makeup and evolution of the gut microbiota, advancing obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer. After a brief discussion of the food system's variety and the gut microbiota's functions, we concentrate on the relationship between the evolution of food system transformation and gut microbiota system transition linked to the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Finally, we also describe sustainable food system transformation strategies to ensure healthy microbiota composition recovery and maintain the host gut barrier and immune functions to reverse advancing NCDs.

Keywords: diet transition; food system; gut microbiota; non-communicable diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Host–microbiota interactions and their relationship with disease. Reprinted from Masenga et al. [27] under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drivers of dietary trends and their relation to microbiota composition and changes in human health. Adapted from Moles and Otaegui [55]. under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interactions of the food processing system and gut microbiota transition. Reprinted from Ercolini and Fogliano [66]. under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Link between obesity and gut–microbiota–brain axis. “Reprinted from Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol, 2 (10), Torres-Fuentes et al. [146], The microbiota-gut-brain axis in obesity, 747–756, Copyright (2017), with permission from Elsevier”. Also Lancet special credit–“Reprinted from The Lancet, 2, Torres-Fuentes et al. [146], The microbiota-gut-brain axis in obesity, 747–756, Copyright (2017), with permission from Elsevier”. (License Number: 5555560985483).
Figure 5
Figure 5
The role of the gut microbiota in the incidence and progression of cancer. Reprinted from Li et al. [195] under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Food System-gut-heart proposed mechanisms of interactions. FMO3; flavin-containing monooxygenase 3, LPS; lipopolysaccharide, TMA; trimetylamine, TMAO; trimethylamine-N-oxide.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Gladek E., Fraser M., Roemers G., Sabag Muñoz O., Kennedy E., Hirsch P. The Global Food System: An Analysis. WWF; Zeist, The Netherlands: 2017.
    1. Parsons K., Hawkes C., Wells R. Rethinking Food Policy: A Fresh Approach to Policy and Practice. Centre for Food Policy; London, UK: 2019. Brief 2. What is the food system? A Food policy perspective.
    1. von Braun J., Afsana K., Fresco L., Hassan M., Torero M. Food Systems—Definition, Concept and Application for the UN Food Systems Summit; Scientific Group Report for the Food Systems Summit. United Nations; New York, NY, USA: 2021. - DOI
    1. Elechi J.O.G., Nwiyi I.U., Adamu C. Global food system transformation for resilience. In: Ribeiro-Barros A.I., Tevera D., Goulao L.F., Tivana L.D., editors. Food Systems Resilience. IntechOpen Limited; London, UK: 2022. pp. 21–52. - DOI
    1. IOM (Institute of Medicine) Improving Food Safety through a One Health Approach. The National Academies Press; Washington, DC, USA: 2012. - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
twitter 2