Impact of dietary components on enteric infectious disease

Diets impact host health in multiple ways and an unbalanced diet could contribute to the initiation or progression of a variety of diseases. Although a wealth of information exists on the connections between diet and chronic metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, etc., how diet influences enteric infectious disease still remain underexplored. The review summarizes the current findings on the link between various dietary components and diverse enteric infectious diseases. Dietary ingredients discussed include macronutrients (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins), micronutrients (vitamins, minerals), and other dietary ingredients (phytonutrients and probiotic supplements). We first describe the importance of enteric infectious diseases and the direct and indirect relationship between diet and enteric infectious diseases. Then we discuss the effects of different dietary components on the susceptibility to or progression of enteric infectious disease. Finally, we delineate current knowledge gap and highlighted future research directions. The literature review revealed that different dietary components affect host resistance to enteric infections through a variety of mechanisms. Dietary components may directly inhibit or bind to enteric pathogens, or indirectly influence enteric infections through modulating immune function and gut microbiota. Elucidating the unique repercussions of different diets on enteric infections in this review may help provide dietary guidelines or design dietary interventions to prevent or alleviate enteric infectious diseases.