Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Dietary Therapeutical Approaches with a Special Focus on Nutraceuticals (Polyphenols): A Mini-Review

Abstract

More than half of all global deaths in 2010 were related to non-communicable diseases, including obesity, cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses. It has been suggested that the alarming increase in the incidence of cardiovascular disease is the epidemiologic result of a nutrition transition characterized by dietary patterns featuring an increase in the intake of total fat, cholesterol, sugars, and other refined carbohydrates, concomitant with low consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and fiber. Although traditional dietary approaches have proven successful as part of the treatment for obesity and cardiometabolic derangements within clinical trial scenarios, they lack effectiveness in the long term, mainly due to poor compliance. Research has thus turned its attention to nutraceutics, nutrients that have the ability to modulate physiological and pathophysiological molecular mechanisms, thus resulting in favorable health outcomes. Polyphenols have been considered as among the bioactive molecules as they are thought to yield beneficial effects by exerting antioxidant activity; however, there are other - and even more robust - metabolic pathways through which polyphenols enhance cardiovascular health, such as via promoting vasodilatory, anti-atherogenic, antithrombotic, and anti-inflammatory effects. No standard dose has yet been determined, as the effects greatly vary among polyphenols and food sources; thus, there is an imperative need to generate more evidence in order to support dietary recommendations aimed at the prevention and therapeutics of obesity and its associated cardiometabolic diseases.