The worldwide increase in diet-related diseases has promoted research during the past few decades on the mechanisms of food digestion in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Food digestion is a complex process that consists of the oral, gastric, and intestinal phases, in which numerous mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic processes are involved. Human or animal intervention trials, namely in vivo methods, which provide the most accurate results, have been conducted to understand the impact of food structure and composition on human health, but they are time-consuming, costly, resource-intensive, and ethically disputable. Alternatively, in vitro simulated GI digestion models with their advantages of being short in duration, less expensive, less labor and resource-intensive, and also not being burdened with the same ethical restrictions, are widely employed to study the structural changes, digestibility, and release of food components in the GI tract. Several types of in vitro digestion models have been proposed and used for analyzing foods. These models can be divided into static and dynamic methods. For example, a standardized and practical in vitro static protocol, the INFOGEST digestion method, was proposed in 2014 by the COST INFOGEST network. Recently, in silico models are being used to predict the digestion and absorption of food compounds in the GI tract. The development of advanced, more efficient, and reliable in vitro GI models is currently very active.
Plant-based foods, generally classified into grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, are important sources of calories, nutrients, and bioactive compounds that enter the human body via the GI tract. All dietary ingredients including the carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and various phytochemicals present in plant-based foods are therefore potentially bioactive within humans, but their nutritional and health benefits will depend on several factors such as the degree of food processing, the presence of other compounds within the food matrix, the quantity consumed, and one of the most important of these, the number of nutrients or bioactive compounds finally released and absorbed during GI digestion. Therefore, there is an increasing interest to elucidate the digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods through the application of in vitro GI models, and to understand the health effects of their digests.
In this Research Topic, we welcome the submission of original research papers and reviews that cover the following subtopics:
1. In vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
2. Effect of food matrix interactions on in vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
3. Effect of food processing techniques on in vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
4. The bioactivity evaluation of the digests of dietary ingredients released by in vitro GI models
5. Methodological study: development or improvement of in vitro GI models
The worldwide increase in diet-related diseases has promoted research during the past few decades on the mechanisms of food digestion in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Food digestion is a complex process that consists of the oral, gastric, and intestinal phases, in which numerous mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic processes are involved. Human or animal intervention trials, namely in vivo methods, which provide the most accurate results, have been conducted to understand the impact of food structure and composition on human health, but they are time-consuming, costly, resource-intensive, and ethically disputable. Alternatively, in vitro simulated GI digestion models with their advantages of being short in duration, less expensive, less labor and resource-intensive, and also not being burdened with the same ethical restrictions, are widely employed to study the structural changes, digestibility, and release of food components in the GI tract. Several types of in vitro digestion models have been proposed and used for analyzing foods. These models can be divided into static and dynamic methods. For example, a standardized and practical in vitro static protocol, the INFOGEST digestion method, was proposed in 2014 by the COST INFOGEST network. Recently, in silico models are being used to predict the digestion and absorption of food compounds in the GI tract. The development of advanced, more efficient, and reliable in vitro GI models is currently very active.
Plant-based foods, generally classified into grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, are important sources of calories, nutrients, and bioactive compounds that enter the human body via the GI tract. All dietary ingredients including the carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and various phytochemicals present in plant-based foods are therefore potentially bioactive within humans, but their nutritional and health benefits will depend on several factors such as the degree of food processing, the presence of other compounds within the food matrix, the quantity consumed, and one of the most important of these, the number of nutrients or bioactive compounds finally released and absorbed during GI digestion. Therefore, there is an increasing interest to elucidate the digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods through the application of in vitro GI models, and to understand the health effects of their digests.
In this Research Topic, we welcome the submission of original research papers and reviews that cover the following subtopics:
1. In vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
2. Effect of food matrix interactions on in vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
3. Effect of food processing techniques on in vitro digestibility and bioaccessibility of dietary ingredients in plant-based foods
4. The bioactivity evaluation of the digests of dietary ingredients released by in vitro GI models
5. Methodological study: development or improvement of in vitro GI models