Saraid Mora Rochín

The gut microbiota is a dynamic ecosystem shaped by dietary factors, lifestyle factors, environmental exposures, and host characteristics, with important implications for metabolism, immune regulation, intestinal barrier function, and host–microbiota interactions. This narrative review examines how dietary patterns, specific food components, physical activity, sleep and circadian rhythms, aging, and medication exposure modulate gut microbial composition and function, with particular emphasis on interindividual variability and personalized nutrition. A literature search was conducted in Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar for publications from 2000 to 2026, with emphasis on recent peer-reviewed evidence. Current evidence indicates that dietary patterns and individual food components can modify microbial community structure, metabolic pathways, and bioactive metabolite production, although responses vary substantially across individuals. Physical activity may modify microbial ecology, intestinal physiology, barrier function, and microbial metabolism, whereas sleep disruption and circadian misalignment may alter microbial rhythmicity and host metabolic regulation. Aging and antibiotic exposure are associated with context-dependent changes in microbial composition, function, resilience, and, with antibiotics, the gut resistome. Across these determinants, interindividual variability emerges as a central feature driven by host characteristics, habitual diet, lifestyle, medication history, baseline microbiota, and microbial functional capacity. Personalized nutrition therefore represents a promising but evolving framework in which microbiome data may be integrated with host and environmental characteristics to predict differential responses. Future research should prioritize longitudinal human studies, standardized methodologies, multi-omics integration, and prospective validation of microbiome-informed interventions to establish clinically meaningful benefits.

White corn (Zea mays L.) is a staple grain in the Mexican diet and an important source of carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds. This study evaluated the effects of H₂O₂ elicitation and germination time on germination performance, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant capacity of white corn sprouts. Response surface methodology, based on a rotatable central composite design (13 treatments) was used to optimize H₂O₂ concentration (0–50 mM) during 24 h soaking and germination times ranging from 0 to 96 h. Optimal conditions were 20 mM H₂O₂ and 92 h germination, yielding 94% germination, 236.94 mg GAE/100 g free phenolic content, 21.63 mg/100 g GABA, and 6311.06 µmol TE/100 g antioxidant capacity (ABTS). Under these conditions, protein, GABA, and gallic acid contents, as well as antioxidant activity, increased by 9.26%, 34.01%, 30.95%, and 27.24%, respectively, compared with germinated grains without elicitor treatment. These findings demonstrate that H₂O₂-assisted germination is an effective strategy for enhancing the nutritional and functional properties of white corn sprouts.

El consumo de tortilla se ha expandido a través de todo el mundo. El maíz azul ha ganado popularidad entre los comensales debido al mayor aporte de proteínas y color característico proporcionado por las antocianinas. La transformación de maíz a tortilla disminuye compuestos nutricionales y polifenoles. El objetivo de esta investigación fue elaborar una tortilla funcional a base de maíz azul y lenteja (TF), para incrementar proteínas y polifenoles respecto a la tortilla tradicional (TC). La TF fue elaborada con una relación 70:30 (harina de maíz azul nixtamalizada: harina de lenteja). En las tortillas obtenidas, TF y TC, se evaluó composición químico proximal, color, antocianinas, polifenoles y actividad antioxidante total. En TF incrementó 48 % y 7 % proteína y cenizas, el color fue más claro, confirmado con incrementos en L* (67.8 y 59.7) y disminuciones en ΔE (29.08 y 38.74) (p ≤ 0.05). Asimismo, polifenoles totales y actividad antioxidante fue mayor (p ≤ 0.05) en la TF (168.1 mg EAG/100 g, bs y 6,223.7 µmol ET/100 g bs), con incrementos del 21.4 y 82 %, con respecto a la TC. La TF servirá como un vehículo para introducir un mayor aporte de proteínas y compuestos bioactivos con propiedades antioxidantes.

Elicitation appears to be a promising alternative to enhance the bioactive compound content and biological activities of legume sprouts. Multi-response optimization by response surface methodology (RSM) with desirability function (DF) was used to optimize the elicitor concentration (hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)) and germination time in order to maximize total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), and antioxidant activity (AOX) of chickpea sprouts. Chemical, antinutritional, and nutraceutical properties of optimized chickpea sprouts (OCS) were also determined. The predicted regression models developed were efficiently fitted to the experimental data. The results of the desirability function revealed that optimum attributes in chickpea sprouts can be achieved by the application of 30 mM H₂O₂ and 72 h of germination time, with global desirability value D = 0.893. These OCS had higher (p < 0.05) TPC (7.4%), total iso-flavonoids (16.5%), AOX (14.8%), and lower phytic acid (16.1%) and saponins (21.8%) compared to H₂O₂ non-treated chickpea sprouts. Optimized germination conditions slightly modified the flavonoid profile in chickpea; eight iso-flavonoids were identified in OCS, including formononetin and biochanin A, which were identified as the major compounds. Results from this study support elicitation with H₂O₂ as an effective approach to improve phytochemical content and antioxidant activity in chickpea sprouts.

Maintaining and improving the nutritional quality of foods during processing are the main market and industry concerns. Thus, research should focus on novel and sustainable ways for selecting the appropriate processing method that either increases or does not affect the nutrient content of foods. Thermal processing techniques such as extrusion cooking are widely used for producing breakfast cereals, snack foods, pasta, pet food, etc. Extrusion cooking is a continuous process that uses a combination of high-temperature, high-pressure, and high shear conditions in a short period of time, which results in molecular transformation and chemical reactions within the extruded products. Extrusion cooking brings on many biochemical changes such as denaturation of proteins, gelatinization of starch, lipid modifications, inactivation of microorganisms and enzymes, formation of volatile flavor components, and increase in soluble dietary fiber. Furthermore, extrusion cooking has the potential to improve the nutritional quality of the products by improving starch and protein digestibility and increasing the retention of bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties. Also, this highly efficient technology minimizes water pollution and energy consumption. This review aims to discuss the current information regarding changes in nutritional properties and bioactive compounds in cereals processed by extrusion cooking.