Molecular Mechanism of Polyphenols Promoting Health Based on Life Homeostasis and Gene Expression Regulation

People who eat grains and cereals will get sick. For many human diseases, prevention is more important than cure. Food Medicine approach can achieve nutrition security and improve health. Among food and dietary, reasonable intake of dietary polyphenols is better than medication. The benefit of polyphenols in food for treatment and prevention of disorder has attracted widespread attention in the medical scientific community. Mounting evidence showed that moderate consumption of food polyphenols can ameliorate human health, especially reduce the occurrence of many elderly diseases. Metabolic homeostasis and orderly gene expression are key characteristics of health. The homeostasis of human life is first manifested by biophysical stability represented by stressors. Polyphenols play a hormesis role in the human body, and moderate doses of polyphenols and their combinations can improve human health and longevity. The human life homeostasis is secondly characterized by the balance of carbohydrate and protein metabolism. Polyphenols can regulate the sugar metabolism steady state represented by glucose, as well as the protein metabolism steady state represented by protein autophagy. Finally, polyphenols can also regulate human gene expression, especially epigenetic homeostasis. Developing functional foods with specific combinations of polyphenol content for different age groups and patients is a key goal for future polyphenolic dietary nourishing supplements and medicines. This article elucidates the biophysical, biochemical, and molecular biological mechanisms by which food polyphenols promote health from the perspectives of human metabolic homeostasis and epigenetic regulation of gene expression.