Drawing on expert opinions from the fields of nutrition, gut microbiology, mammalian physiology, and immunology, Diet-Microbe Interactions for Human Health investigates the evidence for a unified disease mechanism working through the gut and its resident microbiota, and linking many inflammation-related chronic diet associated diseases.State of the art post-genomic studies can highlight the important role played by our resident intestinal microbiota in determining human health and disease. Many chronic human diseases associated with modern lifestyles and diets - including those localized to the intestinal tract like inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease, and more pervasive systemic conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease - are characterized by aberrant profiles of gut bacteria or their metabolites. Many of these diseases have an inflammatory basis, often presenting with a chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, hinting at persistent and inappropriate activation of inflammatory pathways.Through the presentation and analysis of recent nutrition studies, this book discusses the possible mechanisms underpinning the disease processes associated with these pathologies, with high fat diets appearing to predispose to disease, and biologically active plant components, mainly fiber and polyphenols, appearing to reduce the risk of chronic disease development.

1. The Microbiota of the Human Gastrointestinal Tract: A Molecular View2. A Nutritional Anthropology of the Human Gut Microbiota3. Probiotic Microorganisms for Shaping the Human Gut Microbiota - Mechanisms and Efficacy into the Future 4. Bifidobacteria of the Human Gut: Our Special Friends5. Shaping the Human Microbiome with Prebiotic  Foods - Current Perspectives for Continued Development6. Bioactivation of High-Molecular-Weight Polyphenols by the Gut Microbiome7. Gut Microbial Metabolism of Plant Lignans: Influence on Human Health8. Gut Microbiome Modulates Dietary Xenobiotic Toxicity: The Case of DON and Its Derivatives9. Gut Microbiota-Immune System Crosstalk: Implications  for Metabolic Disease10. The Interplay of Epigenetics and Epidemiology in Autoimmune  Diseases: Time for Geoepigenetics11. Obesity-Associated Gut Microbiota: Characterization and Dietary Modulation12. An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away - Inter-Relationship Between Apple Consumption, the Gut Microbiota and CardioMetabolic Disease Risk Reduction13. Whole Plant Foods and Colon Cancer Risk14. Population Level Divergence from the Mediterranean Diet and the Risk of Cancer and Metabolic Disease15. Diet and the Gut Microbiota - How the Gut:Brain Axis Impacts on Autism