Environmental Impact on Metabolism

The prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) is dramatically increasing worldwide during the last few decades. This phenomenon is mostly due to lifestyle factors (sedentariness, noxious food), along with genetic susceptibility. Recent evidence points out the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) having obesogenic and/or diabetogenic properties that may also play a pathophysiological role in the occurrence of metabolic diseases. Both experimental and epidemiological evidence support a role for early and chronic exposure to EDCs with endocrine- and metabolic-disrupting effects. Most of them are present in the food chain and are stored in the fat mass after absorption. Each of them may act through several pathways; among them, the disruption of gut microbiota has been identified as one of the mechanisms through which EDCs exposure can promote obesity and T2D. Therefore, this chapter summarizes the evidence regarding the EDCs with obesogenic and/or diabetogenic characteristics and their properties to blunt metabolic health through the disruption of gut microbiota.