Figure 4.

The generic chain of potential dose–response accompanying increasing intake and body burden of nutrients and their metabolites

• The intakes indicated at the top progress from adequate to excessive. The boxes describe potential physiological and pathological responses to increasing intakes, and, in this context of chronic excess and subsequent toxicity, the increasing body burden of the nutrient being considered. This figure illustrates a schema for the integration of evidence on adverse health effects and pathophysiological sequelae which in turn would aid the identification of endpoints as candidate biomarkers and an appreciation of the mechanisms of adverse health effects (i.e. mode of action) for subsequent features such as disease (Figure adapted from EFSA Scientific Committee, 2021a ).