From meal to malfunction: exploring molecular pathways, biomarkers and interventions in postprandial cardiometabolic health.

ABSTRACT: Cardiometabolic diseases-including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease-are increasingly driven by near-continuous after-meal exposure to glucose and lipid surges that traditional fasting tests often miss. This review prioritizes human studies from 2020 to 2025 and uses earlier work only as foundational anchors; non-English reports were excluded and preclinical findings are cited solely for mechanistic context. Evidence converges on six processes that amplify risk within hours after eating: impaired insulin signaling, delayed clearance of dietary lipids, mitochondrial and oxidative stress, loss of endothelial nitric oxide, inflammasome-mediated inflammation, and microbiome-hormone interactions. Dynamic, after-meal markers and

SUBMITTER: Reytor-Gonzalez C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12605470 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature