Plant-Based Foods, Bioactive Nutrients, and Immune-Metabolic Health

Nutritional epidemiology and clinical nutrition research have increasingly focused on the relationship between dietary patterns and the development of immune-metabolic health outcomes, including chronic inflammation, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The shift towards plant-based (PB) eating has spurred significant interest in understanding not only the general effects of such diets but also the specific roles played by various plant-derived foods and bioactive nutrients. Recent studies have highlighted how healthful PB diets are associated with reduced inflammation and favourable metabolic profiles, whereas less healthful plant-based patterns may confer different risks. Despite a growing body of evidence linking components like polyphenols, carotenoids, dietary fibre, and PB-bioactive peptides to key biological pathways, considerable gaps remain regarding the long-term impact, optimal dietary assessment, and the mechanisms mediating these associations, particularly across diverse populations and lifecourse contexts. This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding of how plant-based foods, dietary patterns, and bioactive nutrients influence immune function and metabolic health. Contributions spanning observational cohorts, biomarker-driven mechanistic research in humans, and human interventions are encouraged. Central objectives include elucidating the causal links between dietary exposures and immune-metabolic phenotypes, clarifying the relative contributions of healthful versus unhealthful plant-based patterns, and examining how individual food groups and bioactive compounds impact inflammation, insulin resistance, and other clinical endpoints. Further, it seeks to address methodological challenges, refine dietary assessment tools, and strengthen approaches to handling confounding, substitution, and mediation. Through this, we hope to foster discussion that bridges evidence from diet-biomarker research, population-based cohorts, and well designed clinical and pragmatic interventions, ultimately informing dietary guidance and policy.This Research Topic will centre on human research and evidence synthesis across the epidemiology to intervention continuum, focusing on dietary exposures characterized by plant-based foods and their bioactive constituents. We welcome prospective observational studies, high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and well-designed human intervention studies (including randomised controlled trials, controlled feeding studies, and pragmatic/real-world interventions) that test plant-based foods, dietary patterns, or specific bioactive nutrients using validated exposure and outcome measures. Studies integrating immune and metabolic biomarkers, the gut microbiome, and omics approaches to strengthen causal inference are particularly encouraged. Complementary translational work (e.g., food characterisation, processing, and bioaccessibility/bioavailability) will be considered when clearly linked to human relevance. Purely mechanistic laboratory or animal studies without clear translational relevance to human immune-metabolic health are outside the scope of this collection. To gather further insights in this area, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Dietary assessment and methodological advances for plant-based diets and bioactive nutrients, including objective biomarkers and omics-informed exposure measures.o Associations between plant-based dietary patterns and immune-metabolic risk profiles across diverse populations and the lifecourse.o The role of specific food groups (e.g., legumes, whole grains, nuts, fermented foods) in determining immune-metabolic outcomes.o Human intervention studies (randomised trials, controlled feeding, pragmatic interventions) testing plant-based foods, dietary patterns, or bioactive nutrients on immune and metabolic endpoints.o Bioactive nutrient effects, including polyphenols, carotenoids, phytosterols, bioactive peptides: bioavailability, metabolism, and impacts on inflammation, immunity, and insulin resistance.o The gut microbiome and microbial metabolites as mediators of plant-based diet effects on immune-metabolic health (including multi-omics integration). Equity, contextual variation, personal nutrition, and effect modification in plant-based diet–health relationships.o Sensitive periods and life-course analyses of immune-metabolic outcomes in relation to dieto Translation of evidence across observational, mechanistic, intervention, and epidemiologic research into clinical practice and public health recommendations. Topic editors: Noelia Rodriguez, Esther Molina-Montes, Justo Pedroche, María Ruiz-Rico, Marta Herrera Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79607/plant-based-foods-bioactive-nutrients-and-immune-metabolic-health