Samuel Fernández-Tomé
Understanding the complex process of food digestion is an area of intense research due to its direct liaison with nutrition and health. Over the last few years, consumers have been paying more attention to how nutritional factors and the consumption of certain foods may impact human well-being, as food components may display either beneficial or adverse effects in the digestive system, and therefore, in human health. Hence, our gastrointestinal tract is exposed to a large variety of food components once they are processed, released, and eventually transported across the intestinal barrier. Food compounds are thus metabolized and subjected to different changes in the digestive system, and scientists working on functional foods aim to uncover this challenge to better determine the health implications of food bioactives. While the simulation of the physiological conditions of the digestion process is a crucial step, there is growing evidence regarding the health impact of the modulation of digestive functions through dietary substances. Therefore, the goal of this Special Issue was to gather the latest research on the three-way interplay between the digestive system, the food matrix and composition during digestion, and the nutritional and functional properties of food bioactives, highlighting investigations applying model systems of food gastrointestinal digestion, absorption, bioavailability, and gut microbiota, but also novel studies and future scientific trends about the nutritional and biological functions of digested food products and their bioactive molecules in health and disease.
