Digestion is the key step for delivering nutrients and bioactive substances to the body. The way different food components interact with each other and with digestive enzymes can modify the digestion process and affect human health. Understanding how food components interact during digestion is essential for the rational design of functional food products. Plant polyphenols have gained much attention for the bioactive roles they play in the human body. However, their strong beneficial effects on human health have also been associated with a negative impact on the digestion process. Due to the generally low absorption of phenolic compounds after food intake, most of the consumed polyphenols remain in the gastrointestinal tract, where they then can exert inhibitory effects on enzymes involved in the degradation of saccharides, lipids, and proteins. While the inhibitory effects of phenolics on the digestion of energy-rich food components (saccharides and lipids) may be regarded as beneficial, primarily in weight-control diets, their inhibitory effects on the digestion of proteins are not desirable for the reason of reduced utilization of amino acids. The effect of polyphenols on protein digestion is reviewed in this article, with an emphasis on food processing methods to improve the antinutritive properties of polyphenols.
Keywords: digestion; flavonoid; polyphenol; protein; tannin.
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