Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Agro-Food Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100081, China.
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing Key Laboratory for Food Nonthermal Processing, Key Lab of Fruit and Vegetable Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100083, China.
Nutrients. 2022 Aug 25;14(17):3488. doi: 10.3390/nu14173488.
The consumption of processed foods has increased compared to that of fresh foods in recent years, especially due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Here, we evaluated the health effects of clarified apple juices (CAJs, devoid of pectin and additives) processed to different degrees, including not-from-concentrate (NFC) and from-concentrate (FC) CAJs. A 56-day experiment including a juice-switch after 28 days was designed. An integrated analysis of 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics of cecal content were performed. In addition, differences in the CAJs tested with respect to nutritional indices and composition of small-molecule compounds were analyzed. The NFC CAJ, which showed a higher phenolic content resulting from the lower processing degree, could improve microbiota diversity and influence its structure. It also reduced bile acid and bilirubin contents, as well as inhibited the microbial metabolism of tryptophan in the gut. However, we found that these effects diminished with time by performing experiment extension and undertaking juice-switching. Our study provides evidence regarding the health effects of processed foods that can potentially be applied to public health policy decision making. We believe that NFC juices with a lower processing degree could potentially be healthier than FC juice.
近年来，与新鲜食品相比，加工食品的消费有所增加，尤其是在 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行期间。在这里，我们评估了经过不同程度加工的澄清苹果汁（CAJ，不含果胶和添加剂），包括非浓缩（NFC）和浓缩（FC）CAJ 的健康影响。设计了一项为期 56 天的实验，包括在 28 天后进行果汁切换。对盲肠内容物的 16S rRNA 测序和非靶向代谢组学进行了综合分析。此外，还分析了所测试的 CAJ 在营养指数和小分子化合物组成方面的差异。NFC CAJ 的加工程度较低，导致其酚类含量较高，可提高微生物多样性并影响其结构。它还降低了胆汁酸和胆红素的含量，并抑制了肠道中色氨酸的微生物代谢。然而，通过进行实验扩展和进行果汁切换，我们发现这些效果随着时间的推移而减弱。我们的研究提供了有关加工食品健康影响的证据，这些证据可能应用于公共卫生政策决策。我们相信，加工程度较低的 NFC 果汁可能比 FC 果汁更健康。
