During the last decade, major scientific advances on understanding the mechanisms of lipid digestion and metabolism have been made, with a view to addressing health issues (such as obesity) associated with overconsumption of lipid-rich and sucrose-rich foods. As lipids in common foods exist in the form of emulsions, the structuring of emulsions has been one the main strategies for controlling the rate of lipid digestion and absorption, at least from a colloid science viewpoint. Modulating the kinetics of lipid digestion and absorption offers interesting possibilities for developing foods that can provide control of postprandial lipaemia and control the release of lipophilic compounds. Food emulsions can be designed to achieve considerable differences in the kinetics of lipid digestion but most research has been applied to relatively simple model systems and in in vitro digestion models. Further research to translate this knowledge into more complex food systems and to validate the results in human studies is required. One promising approach to delay/control lipid digestion is to alter the stomach emptying rate of lipids, which is largely affected by interactions of emulsion droplets with the food matrices. Food matrices with different responses to the gastric environment and with different interactions between oil droplets and the food matrix can be designed to influence lipid digestion. This review focuses on key scientific advances made during the last decade on understanding the physicochemical and structural modifications of emulsified lipids, mainly from a biophysical science perspective. The review specifically explores different approaches by which the structure and stability of emulsions may be altered to achieve specific lipid digestion kinetics.

在过去十年中，在了解脂质消化和代谢机制方面取得了重大科学进展，以解决与过度食用富含脂肪和富含蔗糖的食物相关的健康问题（如肥胖）。由于普通食品中的脂质以乳液形式存在，因此至少从胶体科学的角度来看，乳液的结构化一直是控制脂质消化和吸收速率的主要策略之一。调节脂质消化和吸收的动力学为开发能够控制餐后脂肪血症和控制亲脂性化合物释放的食品提供了有趣的可能性。可以设计食品乳液以在脂质消化动力学方面实现相当大的差异，但大多数研究已应用于相对简单的模型系统和体外消化模型。需要进一步研究，将这些知识转化为更复杂的食品系统，并在人体研究中验证结果。一种有前途的延迟/控制脂质消化的方法是改变脂质的胃排空率，这在很大程度上受到乳液液滴与食物基质相互作用的影响。可以设计对胃环境具有不同反应以及油滴与食物基质之间相互作用不同的食物基质来影响脂质消化。本综述重点介绍了过去十年中在了解乳化脂质的物理化学和结构修饰方面取得的关键科学进展，主要从生物物理科学的角度进行。该综述特别探讨了改变乳液结构和稳定性以实现特定脂质消化动力学的不同方法。