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Complexity and health functionality of plant cell wall fibers from fruits and vegetables

2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 57; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10408398.2013.850652

1549-7852

A. Padayachee, Li Day, Kate Howell, Michael J. Gidley,

Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology

The prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases is increasing in developing countries with the causes for death starting to follow the same pattern in the developed world. Lifestyle factors including inadequate dietary intake of fruits and vegetables and over consumption of nutrient-poor processed foods, are considered to be major causal risk factors associated with increased susceptibility to developing certain diseases (Alldrick, 1998 Alldrick, A. J. (1998). Functional foods: Assuring quality. In: Functional foods - The consumer, the products, the evidence, pp. 135–142. Sadler, M. J. and Saltmarsh, M. Ed. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge. [Google Scholar]; Kiani, 2007 Kiani, L. (2007, 13/03/2008). "Natural miracles: What functional foods can do for you?" ProQuest Discovery Guides. from http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/discoveryguides-main.php. [Google Scholar]). Recent epidemiological evidence confirms a strong association between dietary fiber and reduced all-cause mortality risk, as well as a risk reduction for a number of non-communicable diseases (Chuang et al., 2012 Chuang, S.-C., Norat, T., Murphy, N., Olsen, A., Tjonneland, A., Overvad, K., Boutron-Ruault, M. C., Perquier, F., Dartois, L., Kaaks, R., Teucher, B., Bergmann, M. M., Boeing, H., Trichopoulou, A., Lagiou, P., Trichopoulos, D., Grioni, S., Sacerdote, C., Salvatore, P., Palli, D., Tumino, R., Peeters, P. H. M., Bueno-de-Mesquita, B., Ros, M. M., Brustad, M., Asli, L. A., Skeie, G., Quiros, J. R., Gonzalez, C. A., Sanchez, M.-J., Navarro, C., Aicua, E. A., Dorronsoro, M., Drake, I., Sonestedt, E., Ingegerd, J., Hallmans, G., Key, T., Crowe, F., Khaw, K.-T., Wareham, N., Ferrari, P., Slimani, N., Romieu, I., Gallo, V., Riboli, E. and Vineis, P. (2012). Fiber intake and total and cause-specifics mortality in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition cohort. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 96:164–174.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The relationship between dietary fiber and mortality has been described as "convincing observations that call for mechanistic investigations" (Landberg, 2012 Landberg, R. (2012). Dietary fiber and mortality: convincing observatins that call for mechanistic investigations. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 96:3–4.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In particular, the health protective roles played by dietary fibers of different origin are not well understood. Whilst Hippocrates was the earliest known physician to study the health benefits of fiber derived from grains (Burkitt, 1987 Burkitt, D. P. (1987). Dietary fibre historical aspects. Scand. J.Gastroentero 22(S129):10–13.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the functionality of fruit and vegetable fiber, especially in association with other compounds such as polyphenols and carotenoids, is an area of more recent interest. Hence the objective of this review is to assess the complexity and health-related functional role of plant cell wall (PCW) fibers from fruits and vegetables with a particular emphasis on interactions between cell walls and phytonutrients.