Foodomics in health: Advanced techniques for studying the bioactive role of foods

Abstract

This review illustrates how the use of the latest omics technologies is being applied to investigate the effect of diets, foods or food components on health/disease status. Bioactive food components alter gene expression and protein levels and functions, leading to various beneficial effects on human health. Gene variants and expression, epigenetic regulation, protein levels and post-translational modifications, as well as metabolites, can be analyzed and integrated globally to obtain functional information. Foodomics, integrating the study of food and nutrition with omics technologies, allows the investigation of cellular processes, functional mechanisms and molecules involved, as well as the definition of targets for bioactive compounds useful for the development of nutritional intervention strategies, and the discovery of biomarkers linking nutrition and health. In addition, the main limitations of the use of these approaches are discussed, as well as the trends that will be applied in the area in the near future, providing a broad and updated view.