Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health

Abstract Access to safe and nutritious food is key to ensuring health and well-being and is critical to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, a synthesis of the associations between foodborne illness and malnutrition, such as metabolic health, remains a gap in the liter...

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Main Authors: Srishti Sinha, Laura S. Hackl, Samantha L. Huey, Elisabetta Lambertini, Stella Nordhagen, Anna M. Bennett, Nidhi Shrestha, Nathaniel L. Cole, Julia L. Finkelstein, Saurabh Mehta
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-04-01
Series:BMC Global and Public Health
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-025-00150-0
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author Srishti Sinha
Laura S. Hackl
Samantha L. Huey
Elisabetta Lambertini
Stella Nordhagen
Anna M. Bennett
Nidhi Shrestha
Nathaniel L. Cole
Julia L. Finkelstein
Saurabh Mehta
author_facet Srishti Sinha
Laura S. Hackl
Samantha L. Huey
Elisabetta Lambertini
Stella Nordhagen
Anna M. Bennett
Nidhi Shrestha
Nathaniel L. Cole
Julia L. Finkelstein
Saurabh Mehta
author_sort Srishti Sinha
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Access to safe and nutritious food is key to ensuring health and well-being and is critical to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, a synthesis of the associations between foodborne illness and malnutrition, such as metabolic health, remains a gap in the literature base. In this review, we summarized existing evidence on the impacts of biological and chemical hazards on nutrition-related health outcomes, specifically overweight and obesity, inflammation, metabolic disease, thyroid function, cancer development, and adverse birth outcomes, examining physiological mechanisms, epidemiological associations, and animal studies. Mechanisms between some foodborne hazards, such as H. pylori, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, e.g., gestational diabetes mellitus, or between nitrates and impaired thyroid function, are relatively well-studied. However, evidence on the effects of many other chemical hazards on metabolic and human health remains limited: for example, while arsenic exposure is associated with adverse birth outcomes, the limited availability of dose-response studies and other challenges limit ascertaining its causal role. Untangling these associations and physiological mechanisms is of high relevance for both high- as well as low- and middle-income countries. Emerging technologies and novel assessment techniques are needed to improve the detection and understanding of understudied and complex foodborne diseases, particularly those arising from chemical hazards. These evidence gaps are highlighted in this review, as well as the need for establishing surveillance systems for monitoring foodborne diseases and metabolic health outcomes across populations.
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spelling doaj-art-9dc22af45c6c4686b76e524a74f6fdbb2025-08-20T02:17:05ZengBMCBMC Global and Public Health2731-913X2025-04-013111410.1186/s44263-025-00150-0Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic healthSrishti Sinha0Laura S. Hackl1Samantha L. Huey2Elisabetta Lambertini3Stella Nordhagen4Anna M. Bennett5Nidhi Shrestha6Nathaniel L. Cole7Julia L. Finkelstein8Saurabh Mehta9Cornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityDivision of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell UniversityCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityGlobal Alliance for Improved NutritionGlobal Alliance for Improved NutritionCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityCornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell UniversityAbstract Access to safe and nutritious food is key to ensuring health and well-being and is critical to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, a synthesis of the associations between foodborne illness and malnutrition, such as metabolic health, remains a gap in the literature base. In this review, we summarized existing evidence on the impacts of biological and chemical hazards on nutrition-related health outcomes, specifically overweight and obesity, inflammation, metabolic disease, thyroid function, cancer development, and adverse birth outcomes, examining physiological mechanisms, epidemiological associations, and animal studies. Mechanisms between some foodborne hazards, such as H. pylori, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, e.g., gestational diabetes mellitus, or between nitrates and impaired thyroid function, are relatively well-studied. However, evidence on the effects of many other chemical hazards on metabolic and human health remains limited: for example, while arsenic exposure is associated with adverse birth outcomes, the limited availability of dose-response studies and other challenges limit ascertaining its causal role. Untangling these associations and physiological mechanisms is of high relevance for both high- as well as low- and middle-income countries. Emerging technologies and novel assessment techniques are needed to improve the detection and understanding of understudied and complex foodborne diseases, particularly those arising from chemical hazards. These evidence gaps are highlighted in this review, as well as the need for establishing surveillance systems for monitoring foodborne diseases and metabolic health outcomes across populations.https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-025-00150-0Foodborne diseaseMetabolic healthNutritionChemical hazardsBiological hazards
spellingShingle Srishti Sinha
Laura S. Hackl
Samantha L. Huey
Elisabetta Lambertini
Stella Nordhagen
Anna M. Bennett
Nidhi Shrestha
Nathaniel L. Cole
Julia L. Finkelstein
Saurabh Mehta
Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
BMC Global and Public Health
Foodborne disease
Metabolic health
Nutrition
Chemical hazards
Biological hazards
title Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
title_full Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
title_fullStr Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
title_full_unstemmed Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
title_short Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
title_sort overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health
topic Foodborne disease
Metabolic health
Nutrition
Chemical hazards
Biological hazards
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-025-00150-0
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