Dietary polyphenol intake in Europe: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study

Abstract

Background/Objectives Polyphenols are plant secondary metabolites with a large variability in their chemical structure and dietary occurrence that have been associated with some protective effects against several chronic diseases. To date, limited data exist on intake of polyphenols in populations. The current cross-sectional analysis aimed at estimating dietary intakes of all currently known individual polyphenols and total intake per class and subclass, and to identify their main food sources in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Methods Dietary data at baseline were collected using a standardized 24-h dietary recall software administered to 36,037 adult subjects. Dietary data were linked with Phenol-Explorer, a database with data on 502 individual polyphenols in 452 foods and data on polyphenol losses due to cooking and food processing. Results Mean total polyphenol intake was the highest in Aarhus-Denmark (1786 mg/day in men and 1626 mg/day in women) and the lowest in Greece (744 mg/day in men and 584 mg/day in women). When dividing the subjects into three regions, the highest intake of total polyphenols was observed in the UK healthconscious group, followed by non-Mediterranean (non-MED) and MED countries. The main polyphenol contributors were phenolic acids (52.5-56.9 %), except in men from MED countries and in the UK health-conscious group where they were flavonoids (49.1-61.7 %). Coffee, tea, and fruits were the most important food sources of total polyphenols. A total of 437 different individual polyphenols were consumed, including 94 consumed at a level [1 mg/day. The most abundant ones were the caffeoylquinic acids and the proanthocyanidin oligomers and polymers. Conclusion This study describes the large number of dietary individual polyphenols consumed and the high variability of their intakes between European populations, particularly between MED and non-MED countries.

Flavonoid and lignan intake and pancreatic cancer risk in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition cohort

“…23 and 24.Main food sources were: Total flavonoids: fruits (40%), Flavanols: tea (44%), Flavan‐3‐ols: tea (84%), Proanthocyanidins: fruits (53%), theaflavins: tea (100%), Anthocyanidins: fruits (52%), Flavonols: tea (26%), Flavanones: fruits, (50%), Flavones: tea (30%), Isoflavones: soya products (40%), lignans: vegetables (24%).EPIC: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study.IQR: interquartile range.European Commission (DG‐SANCO); International Agency for Research on Cancer; Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); Ligue Contre le Cancer; Institut Gustave Roussy; Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); German Cancer Aid; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ); Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Deutsche Krebshilfe; Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum; Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany); the Hellenic Health Foundation (Greece); Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro‐AIRC‐Italy; National Research Council (Italy); Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS); Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR); LK Research Funds; Dutch Prevention Funds; Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland); World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF); Nordforsk; Nordic Centre of Excellence Programme on Food, Nutrition and Health (Norway); Swedish Cancer Society; Swedish Research Council and County Councils of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden)…”

“…Information on dietary flavonoids and lignans was available for 1,877 food items. More details on the estimation of the dietary intake of flavonoids and lignans have been described elsewhere 23, 24…”

An Overview of Global Flavonoid Intake and its Food Sources

“…Table 1 summarizes the most important descriptive studies assessing flavonoid intakes in different countries/regions. The mean intake of flavonoids worldwide ranges between 150 and 600mg/day expressed as aglycones without thearubigins [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Taking into account thearubigins, the flavonoid intake could increase by a negligible amount in populations with low black tea intake, but would double the intake in black tea-consuming countries, such as the UK (from ∼500 to >1000mg/day) [27].…”

“…Moreover, studies like the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study allow us to compare the intake in 10 European countries using the same methodology [21,26]. In Europe, an increasing south-to-north gradient is usually observed [26].…”

Polyphenols: Food Sources and Health Benefits

“…Similar indings were observed after comparison of intake according to regions; the total polyphenol intake in the non-Mediterranean countries was higher compared with the Mediterranean countries. The most signiicant sources of phenolic compounds are cofee, tea, and fruit, with phenolic acids contributing to the total intake with more than 50% [30]. This was the irst study that applied retention factors from the PhenolExplorer database to assess the efects of cooking and processing on polyphenol contents in foods.…”