Healthful Diet and Nutritional Food as a Preventive and Interventional Paradigm in the Face of Microplastic and Nanoplastic Crisis

Microplastics (MPs, 1 µm to 5 mm in length) and nanoplastics (NPs, <1 µm) have been ubiquitously detected across marine, terrestrial, freshwater, and atmospheric systems (Thompson et al. 2004). These MNP particles are derived from small plastic pellets manufactured for specific applications, as well as from the weathering, degradation, and fragmentation of larger plastic products within the environment (Huang et al. 2025). Under such alarming circumstances, these agents are transitioning from environmental reservoirs into the human body via ingestion, inhalation, or dermal exposure. Indeed, their presence has been detected in human blood, lungs, liver, placenta, breastmilk, and bone marrow. The global average weekly intake of plastic particles is about 2000 items per person, corresponding to ∼5 g (Bao et al. 2025). At present, ingestion and inhalation remain the two primary exposure pathways. Recently, it is estimated that up to 5.1 × 103 and 4.1 × 104 items are consumed by an adult from table salts and drinking water annually, along with an MP inhalation intake ranging from 0.9 × 104 to 7.9 × 104 items (P. F. Wu et al. 2022). In the past two decades, growing evidence suggests that MNPs are posing significant toxicological effects across a diverse array of living organisms, including plants, animals, plankton, and microorganisms. Foodborne MNPs (0.2 mg/kg in mice, equivalent to an estimated human dose of 1.2 mg/day, once a day for 6 weeks) can potentially affect the “gut microbiota–gut–liver” axis and induce hepatoxicity, while airborne MNPs (0.03 mg/kg in mice, once every 3 days for 6 weeks) may disrupt the “airway microbiota–lung–liver” axis and elicit system toxicity (Zha et al. 2024). Injuries across different organ types, encompassing neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity, hepatotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity can be continuously triggered by MNPs, resulting in accelerated aging, functional deficits, and systemic organ damage (Moon et al. 2024). Although 12 µg/mL MPs have been detected in human blood, cellular obstruction within the cerebral vasculature has been noted with MP concentrations as low as 5 µg/mL. Notably, these circulating MPs indirectly disrupt tissue function by regulating cellular obstruction and compromising local blood circulation, leading to reduced blood flow and neurological abnormalities (Huang et al. 2025). Even biodegradable polylactic acid plastics (200 mg/kg in mice) can be degraded by gut microbiota via the secretion of esterase FrsA and subsequently incorporated into the succinate pathway of the tricarboxylic acid cycle within gut epithelial cells. These events ultimately result in reduced food intake, impaired intestinal barrier, and increased intestinal permeability (Bao et al. 2025). Besides exposure concentration, particle size is also a crucial factor affecting the biotoxicity of MNPs. Polystyrene NPs (5–15 mg/kg in mice) could promote the production of reactive oxygen species, inducing an inflammatory response and constitutively activating the NRF2, NF-κB, and MAPK signaling pathways, which, in turn, result in persistent phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 and reduced protein kinase B activity. Concurrently, activated ERK enhances lipid accumulation via the ERK-PPARγ pathways, leading to the upregulation of sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 and its downstream enzyme ACC-1 (Fan et al. 2024). An ∼1.5-fold increase in fecal MP concentration was observed in inflammatory bowel disease patients compared to healthy individuals (41.8 vs. 28.0 items/g dm) (Yan et al. 2022), raising concerns regarding their potential risks and implications for human health. In a 34-month follow-up study, 58.4% of patients with cardiovascular diseases with MPs (21.7 ± 24.5 µg/mg in carotid artery plaques) faced a higher risk of composite outcomes, including myocardial infarction, stroke, or death, compared to those without detectable MPs (hazard ratio = 4.53) (Marfella et al. 2024). In addition, several epidemiological investigations have established positive associations between MPs and myocardial infarction, stroke, colorectal cancer, and all-cause mortality (Cheng et al. 2025). Furthermore, environmental organic pollutants tend to attach to MNPs due to their high specific surface area, demonstrating higher cell toxicity through “joint toxic effect.” For instance, co-exposure to MNPs and antibiotics (i.e., ciprofloxacin) induced both acute and chronic damage, leading to lipid metabolism disorders and intrahepatic cholestasis (Hou et al. 2025). However, given the lack of direct human evidence, the health risks associated with MNPs remain elusive, highlighting the pressing need for further investigations into the toxic mechanisms of MNPs and their potential associations with human diseases. It is unlikely that plastic pollution control alone will be sufficient to address the health concerns linked to MNP exposure. Multiple dietetic approaches have been proposed: (1) to aviod or reduce the MNP exposure or intake, (2) to promote MNP excretion from the intestine, and (3) to relieve MNP-induced multi-organ injuries. Based on the hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering technology, 2.4 × 105 MNP particles have been detected in per liter of bottled water (Qiana et al. 2024). Nonetheless, 84% of these particles could be eliminated by boiling tap water (Yu et al. 2024). More sustainable and environmentally adaptable adsorbents have also been developed for microplastic remediation in aquatic bodies (Y. Wu et al. 2024). According to an earlier study, probiotics such as Lacticaseibacillus enhanced the excretion rate by 34% and concomitantly decreased residual polystyrene particle levels by 67% within the intestines, attributable to their favorable adsorption ability (Teng et al. 2025). Meanwhile, supplemented probiotics can also serve as a drug delivery system, mitigating MNP-induced inflammation and gut barrier dysfunction (Chen et al. 2025). As previously stated, healthful nutrition could be employed as a preventive and interventional strategy to improve resistance to environmental pollutant toxicities (Zhu and Qian 2024). Dietary fiber in non-digestible food materials is recognized for promoting gastrointestinal peristalsis and regulating gut microbiota. For example, chitosan in algae and mushroom effectively binds MPs and enhance their excretion (Liu and Shimizu 2025). Moreover, bioactive components enriched in natural products with “medicine and food homology,” such as salidroside, resveratrol and quercetin, also demonstrated significant potential in protecting cells from MNP-induced toxicities (Cheng et al. 2025). As a well-known antioxidant, resveratrol significantly ameliorated polystyrene NPs-induced insulin resistance, gluconeogenesis and lipid metabolic disorders by inhibiting the phosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate 1 and FoXO1/ PGC1α/PEPCK pathways (Fan et al. 2024). However, a health concern that is frequently overlooked is the potential contamination of these health-promoting products, such as enteral nutrition formulas with MNPs, posing a high hazard risk to consumer health (Basaran, Aytan, and Senturk 2024). The treatment of plastic pollution or multi-organ injuries induced by MNPs may become an emerging issue in an era of aging of the population. At present, there is an urgent need to establish a comprehensive preventive and interventional system to reduce MNP exposure and safeguard public health worldwide. However, environment-friendly, sustainable, and alternative food packaging remain suboptimal, with advances hindered by technical and economic limitations. Interestingly, all-natural plant fibers such as bamboo fiber-reinforced polymer composites have demonstrated superior mechanical properties, cost-effectiveness, and chemical-free composition, highlighting the feasibility of transitioning toward a low-carbon economy and green development (Luan et al. 2023). The increasing emphasis on the concepts of “One health” and “a community with a shared future of mankind” has reinforced greater advocacy for nature-based and nutrigenetic dietary interventions as reliable approaches to promote human health. Therefore, the “environment–food–human” web links nature and human health (Zhu et al. 2024). As a key mediator of the web, a healthy diet, such as the selection of non-plastic food packaging, homologous medicine, and food, may reduce MNP exposure and promote resistance to MNP-induced injuries. Nevertheless, this healthy living paradigm requires further exploration to elucidate the interactions among environmental factors, dietary interventions, and human health, as well as MNP-induced disorders. This work is financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFF1101103) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (U24A20797). The author declares no conflicts of interest.