Masfufatun Masfufatun

By Budhi Setiawan and Masfufatun Masfufatun

Nutrition has been recognized to play a regulatory role in human immune response and inflammation which may affect the pathogenesis of diseases. Current evidence suggests that the habitual dietary pattern therapeutical approach provides more synergistic beneficial action than the intervention of a single nutrient constituent. Several healthy dietary patterns are essential for the human immunity support against infectious diseases through alleviation of systemic inflammation. Long-term dietary patterns may affect the diversity of intestinal microbiota composition and lead to the decrease of pro-inflammatory cytokines from immune-related cells. Protease that may cause gut barrier breakdown (leaky gut) can be reduced either thus lessen translocation of endogenous bacterial endotoxin such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from the gut lumen to the bloodstream. In this review, we discuss the relationship between common healthy food-based dietary patterns with the protection of infectious diseases as a result of improvement in immune function and low-grade inflammatory indices. In contrary to the deleterious impact of the western diet, healthy eating habits (Mediterranean diet, dietary approaches to stop hypertension, plant-based diet, ketogenic diet) are associated with reduced susceptibility to infectious disease by the improvement of certain underlying metabolic comorbidities. Further studies are needed to determine suitable strategic implications of healthy dietary patterns on infectious disease mitigation in a particular context.

Part of the book: Functional Foods