A £1.7 million award from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will fund a research project, led by King's College London, to investigate how food structure, processing and the gut microbiome shape the release, absorption and metabolism of key compounds found in plant-based foods, and how this impacts cardiovascular health.
The four-year project will be led by Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, working together with Dr Balazs Bajka and Professor Peter Ellis at King's, and researchers at the University of Leeds and Ulster University.
"This funding will allow us to tackle two critical questions in nutritional sciences: how food structure and processing influence health, and why people respond so differently to the same foods," said Professor Rodriguez-Mateos, project lead and Professor of Human Nutrition at King's.
The findings could help to shape future dietary guidance, public health strategies, and even how foods are produced, helping to reduce cardiovascular disease and improve long-term health.
Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, Professor of Human Nutrition at King's
The project focuses on flavan-3-ols, naturally occurring compounds found in tea, cocoa, berries, apples, grapes, nuts, and legumes. They are linked to improved blood vessel function, lower blood pressure, and reduced cardiovascular risk. Despite this, little is known about how these compounds act in the body, how intake varies across typical UK diets, or how food structure and processing influence their effects.
To address this, researchers will use a range of laboratory and human digestion models to track how flavan-3-ols are released and processed in the gut. A unique feature of the project is the use of newly developed 'AVATAR' microbiome models, which use human gut bacteria from faecal samples to study how our microbes respond to different foods. The AVATAR models will be used in parallel with human dietary intervention studies to create a personalised gut model for each participant.
Professor Kieran Tuohy, project co-lead from the University of Leeds explains: "For the first time, we can study how a person's unique gut microbiota affects the release of food components in parallel with that same individual consuming the same meal, representing a major advance in understanding digestion and individual responses to diet".
Another aspect of the project will investigate how the upper gastrointestinal tract contributes to digestion. To do this, the team will conduct specialised food-based trials in people with stomas, whose digestion bypasses the lower gastrointestinal tract. This part of the project will be led by project co-lead Professor Chris Gill from Ulster University.
The team will focus on commonly eaten plant foods to understand how factors such as food structure, processing, storage, and even chewing affect flavan-3-ol release, stability, and absorption. They will also design and test a flavan-3-ol-rich diet in a clinical trial, examining its effects on cardiometabolic health and the gut microbiome at both an individual and population level.
The project will provide the first validated estimates of flavan-3-ol intake in the UK.
Although the nutrient composition of foods is well characterised, we have much less information about other naturally occurring components, such as flavan-3-ols, making it hard to know how much people really consume.
Professor Rodriguez-Mateos
"Using advanced analytical methods, we will analyse the most widely consumed flavan-3-ol-rich foods in the UK, create the most comprehensive composition database to date, and combine it with national representative dietary surveys and biomarkers to estimate population intake," said Professor Rodriguez-Mateos.
The findings from this project could transform our understanding of how plant foods support heart health, guide more effective dietary recommendations, and inform personalised nutrition strategies that improve long-term wellbeing across the population.
