Project: Food phytochemicals matter for cardiometabolic health

Acronym	FOODPHYT
Duration	01/01/2020 - 31/12/2022
Project Topic	FOODPHYT aims at raising awareness and understanding of the enormous potential of food phytochemicals (FPCs) to support the global fight against obesity and associated cardiometabolic diseases. An explosion of research is demonstrating the health benefits of plant-based diets, specific plant foods and phytochemicals, and is deciphering the underlying mechanisms of action. FPCs are highly diverse and display varied effects on molecular targets. Their bioactivity often depends on the individuals’ capacity to produce active metabolites. Data regarding these bioactivities are scattered in the literature and challenging to evaluate. The first objective of FOODPHYT is to make consolidated knowledge available on metabolism, cardiometabolic health effects and mechanisms of action of FPCs and plant foods in an open-access database, from critical review of the literature by experts. We expect that this database will fit the needs of many types of end-users. Another crucial lever to foster better consideration of FPCs and their role in cardiometabolic health is to improve assessment of their exposure. The second FOODPHYT objective is to validate biomarkers of plant food intake, and to harmonize metabolomic methods for comprehensively phenotyping the true internal exposure to FPC metabolites. The usefulness of the new dietary/exposure assessment methods will be demonstrated in proof-of-principle studies. We will (re)investigate associations observed between plant food intake biomarkers or specific FPC metabolites present in biofluids with body weight and cardiometabolic outcomes in pre-existing intervention and observational studies made available for FOODPHYT. Through better knowledge and assessment methods for phytochemicals, there is a considerable potential for improving the nutritional quality of raw and processed foods as well as dietary advice adapted to personal needs and food preferences. This effort is timely given the context of the expected transformation of the global food system towards an unprecedented increase of plant food consumption. FOODPHYT gathers a strong multinational consortium of 7 partners/collaborators with outstanding expertise and a willingness to share data and samples from >15 previous studies for the success of the scheduled objectives. The consortium will make endeavor to foster the capacity building of Early Career Scientists in the interdisciplinary field between nutrition, medicine, metabolomics, bioinformatics and food chemistry.
Network	HDHL-INTIMIC
Call	3rd Cofund Call: Impact of Diet, Food Components and Food Processing on Body Weight Regulation and Overweight Related Metabolic Diseases

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	INRA	Coordinator	France
2	Chalmers University of Technology	Partner	Sweden
3	University of Parma	Partner	Italy
4	Max Rubner-Institut	Partner	Germany
5	IDIBAPS	Partner	Spain
6	University of Alberta	Observer	Canada
7	King's College London	Observer	United Kingdom