Aging is a major risk factor for most chronic diseases and functional impairments. Within a homogeneous age sample there is a considerable variation in the extent of disease and functional impairment risk, revealing a need for valid biomarkers to aid in characterizing the complex aging processes. The identification of biomarkers is further complicated by the diversity of biological living situations, lifestyle activities and medical treatments. Thus, there has been no identification of a single biomarker or gold standard tool that can monitor successful or healthy aging. Within this short review the current knowledge of putative biomarkers is presented, focusing on their application to the major physiological mechanisms affected by the aging process including physical capability, nutritional status, body composition, endocrine and immune function. This review emphasizes molecular and DNA-based biomarkers, as well as recent advances in other biomarkers such as microRNAs, bilirubin or advanced glycation end products.

The main research activities of the last decades on tocopherols were mainly focused on α-tocopherol, in particular when considering the biological activities. However, recent studies have increased the knowledge on γ-tocopherol, which is the major form of vitamin E in the diet in the USA, but not in Europe. γ-Tocopherol provides different antioxidant activities in food and in-vitro studies and showed higher activity in trapping lipophilic electrophiles and reactive nitrogen and oxygen species. The lower plasma levels of γ- compared to α-tocopherol might be discussed in the light of different bioavailability, but also in a potential transformation from γ- into α-tocopherol. From the metabolism end product, only that of γ-tocopherol (2,7,8-trimethyl-2-(β-carboxyethyl)-6-hydroxychroman), but not that of α-tocopherol, was identified to provide natriuretic activity. Studies also indicate that only the γ-tocopherol plasma level served as biomarker for cancer and cardiovascular risk. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive review on γ-tocopherol with emphasis on its chemistry, biosynthesis, occurrence in food, different intake linking to different plasma levels in USA and Europe, absorption and metabolism, biological activities, and possible role in human health.

It is currently unknown whether ultra-processed foods (UPFs) consumption is associated with a higher incidence of multimorbidity. We examined the relationship of total and subgroup consumption of UPFs with the risk of multimorbidity defined as the co-occurrence of at least two chronic diseases in an individual among first cancer at any site, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. This was a prospective cohort study including 266,666 participants (60% women) free of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes at recruitment from seven European countries in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Foods and drinks consumed over the previous 12 months were assessed at baseline by food-frequency questionnaires and classified according to their degree of processing using Nova classification. We used multistate modelling based on Cox regression to estimate cause-specific hazard ratios (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations of total and subgroups of UPFs with the risk of multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. After a median of 11.2 years of follow-up, 4461 participants (39% women) developed multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. Higher UPF consumption (per 1 standard deviation increment, ∼260 g/day without alcoholic drinks) was associated with an increased risk of multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.12). Among UPF subgroups, associations were most notable for animal-based products (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.12), and artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.12). Other subgroups such as ultra-processed breads and cereals (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94, 1.00) or plant-based alternatives (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.02) were not associated with risk. Our findings suggest that higher consumption of UPFs increases the risk of cancer and cardiometabolic multimorbidity. 10.13039/501100001822 Austrian Academy of Sciences , 10.13039/501100004431 Fondation de France , 10.13039/501100000289 Cancer Research UK , 10.13039/100013743 World Cancer Research Fund International , and the 10.13039/501100006364 Institut National du Cancer .

The role of fruit and vegetables in human nutrition and public health are taken into account in most nutritional recommendations. Fruit and vegetables contain an abundance of phenolic substances, terpenoids and other natural antioxidants that have been associated with protection from and treatment of chronic diseases such as heart disease or cancer. Terpenoids are a group of substances which occur in nearly every natural food. Their main subclasses discussed as beneficial to maintain and improve health are monoterpenes (like limonene, carvone or carveol), diterpenes (including the retinoids), and tetraterpenes (which include all different carotenoids like α- and β-carotene, lutein, lycopene, zeaxanthine and cryptoxanthine). To be discussed as health promoting or biofunctional, the significant impact of a substance either on human metabolism or on well-defined and appropriate biomarkers must be shown. Based on the latter point, this paper reviews the literature on mono-, di- and tetraterpenes, with special focus on their impact on human health to answer the question of their biofunctionality. Special emphasis will be placed on their different mode of action, e.g. to affect oxidative stress, carcinogenesis and cardiovascular diseases.