Polyphenols may be freed up in the lower GI tract where they might have beneficial effects.

“What that means is, you put them in with almost anything else, and they're going to get bound. Then you're going to swallow them, and they're going to make it down to your lower GI tract. There, they may be freed up because whatever they're bound to gets to be digested, and so on. But there, it's not a bad thing necessarily. In fact, it's probably a good thing.”