Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases are a major global cause of death and healthcare costs, emphasizing the need for effective prevention and management of cardiometabolic risk factors. One promising approach is the consumption of technologically processed functional foods enriched/fortified with (poly)phenols. The current systematic review aimed to evaluate the human clinical trials evidence on the effect of intake of these foods on reducing the most common cardiometabolic risk factors. 12 randomized controlled studies were included in the systematic review, with varying food intake amounts (27–360 g/day) and (poly)phenol doses (32.5–850 mg/day). These interventions included consumption of functional bakery goods, cereal bars, pasta, chocolate, and yogurt, with supplementation periods spanning from 2 to 52 wk. Several foods, such as green tea extract-fortified rye bread and olive fruit (poly)phenol-fortified yogurt, significantly lowered blood pressure. Flavonoid-enriched chocolate, hydroxytyrosol-fortified bread, and other products influenced glucose metabolism. Additionally, various functional foods were associated with improved blood lipid levels. While these results indicate the health advantages of consuming technologically processed functional foods enriched/fortified with (poly)phenols, caution is warranted due to the scarcity and limitations of existing studies. Further research is needed to confirm and expand upon these results in the prevention and management of cardiometabolic risk factors.
Authors’ contributions
CRediT authorship contribution statement: Conceptualization: am, G.C., and O.F.; Methodology: O.F., A.M., and M.B.; Validation: O.F., A.M., D.M., and G.C.; Formal analysis and investigation: O.F.; A.M., and M.B.; Writing original draft: O.F., M.B. and A.M.; Writing - Review & Editing: A.M., D.M., and G.C.; Visualization: O.F. and M.B.; Supervision: G.C.
Consent to participate
Consent to participate is not applicable to this review article since there are no people as participants.
Consent for publication
All the authors contributed substantially to the development of the manuscript and approved the final submission.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Ethics approval
Ethics approval is not applicable to this review article since there are no people as participants.
Data availability statement
This article does not involve data sharing since it did not generate or analyze any new data during the study.