Polyphenols may be doing something in our bodies that no one expected. A growing body of research suggests that when it comes to polyphenols, diversity may matter more than quantity.
For decades, the health benefits of polyphenols have been attributed to their antioxidant capacity - i.e., their ability to neutralize reactive oxygen species and reduce oxidative stress. But recent evidence suggests that this explanation may be incomplete
A 2025 Nature Food study(PMID: 40456886) found that individuals with the widest diversity of dietary flavonoid intake had a 6–20% lower risk of all-cause mortality and major chronic diseases, independent of total intake. While this observation strengthened decades of epidemiological evidence linking polyphenols to health and longevity, the underlying mechanism was not clear.
Now, exploratory work (PMID: 40964684) from the Wyss Institute offers a potential explanation. Researchers observed that certain flavonoids can self-assemble into supramolecular structures (microscopic fibers that physically interact with and stabilize cellular proteins). Compounds containing glycosidic groups [i.e., sugar attachments (such as isoquercitrin and quercitrin)] formed more flexible, three-dimensional architectures than simpler molecules like quercetin. These structural assemblies appeared to preserve protein integrity under stress, suggesting a non-antioxidant mechanism of cellular protection.
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