Micronutrients & recovery
The gut microbiome plays a critical role in converting unabsorbed flavonoids into bioactive metabolites (e.g., equol from isoflavones, phenolic acids), and the ability to produce these metabolites is a key determinant of health efficacy.
Your gut bacteria determine if certain flavonoids become active. If you don't produce specific metabolites (like equol from soy), you may not get the same benefits as 'producers.' Diversifying your flavonoid sources (anthocyanins, flavonols, etc.) may help ensure you get benefits from compounds your microbiome can process.
The resident microbiome operates as a metabolic reactor, thereby playing a key role in catabolizing unabsorbed flavonoids into smaller molecules such as phenolic and aromatic acids, which may become bioavailable.
Why this rating
Strong evidence for specific cases like equol production, but the paper notes that data for other flavonoid subclasses in humans is limited and nonconclusive.
Source
The role of metabolism (and the microbiome) in defining the clinical efficacy of dietary flavonoids
Aedín Cassidy et al. · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2016
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