To combat the burden of cardiometabolic disease, which constitutes a major public health issue in Europe, it is of crucial importance to develop efficient strategies that target the dietary behaviours of European consumers and improve the food supply. Plant foods are rich sources of a large range of bioactive compounds that beneficially affect our health, particularly by decreasing the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. However, heterogeneity in individuals’ responsiveness to plant food bioactives can obscure associations between dietary intakes and health, hinder the identification of health benefits for specific population groups and limit our understanding of the exact role of the different bioactives.
POSITIVe specifically addresses inter-individual variation in bioavailability and physiological responses to consumption of plant food bioactives in relation to cardiometabolic endpoints. This Action will coordinate a multidisciplinary and multisectorial European network, harness and combine the currently fragmented knowledge and ensure the optimal translation of findings into applications. It will promote the leadership of European research in this active and high-profile research field, provide scientific knowledge to regulatory authorities for a new generation of nutritional recommendations targeted to large population subgroups and foster the competitiveness of the European food industry by underpinning the development of new functional/customized foods.
Plant food bioactives - cardiometabolic health - inter-individual variation - bioavailability and metabolism - nutrigenomics
