Protective Effects of Dietary Polyphenolic Phytochemicals on Nutrition Transition-Related Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

The causal link between massive socio-economic and technological development, nutrition transition, and diet-related chronic disease epidemiology is now well established. Evidence from epidemiological and clinical studies has identified significant reduction in the consumption of fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods in their traditional, natural forms, as one major consequence of nutrition transition that promotes pathogenesis of diet-related chronic diseases, such as, cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors. Many non-nutrient phytochemicals of plant foods are key mediators of nutritional physiology and health, serving to protect against diet-related CVD and risk factors. This review focuses on the emerging evidence for the protective effects of polyphenolic phytochemicals on risks of diet-related CVD and their possible mechanisms of action. Epidemiological evidence, substantiated by numerous human trials and dietary interventions in humans using polyphenol-rich foods, associates high consumption of certain classes of polyphenols, notably flavonoids (flavones, flavonols, catechins, isoflavones) and lignans, with reduced risk of nutrition–related CVD. The underlying mechanisms of the cardioprotective effects of these polyphenols are just beginning to be unravelled but they involve the fundamentally antioxidant and other biological activities of polyphenols, including their vasoactive, oestrogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-hypertensive effects, and entail, at least in part, the inhibition of pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, a precursor of CVD.