title: Intake of potentially anticarcinogenic flavonoids and their determinants in adults in The Netherlands.
abstract: Flavonoids are strong antioxidants that occur naturally in foods and can inhibit carcinogenesis in rodents. Accurate data on population-wide intakes of flavonoids are not available. Here, using data of the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey 1987-1988, we report the intake of the potentially anticarcinogenic flavonoids quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, apigenin, and luteolin among 4,112 adults. The flavonoid content of vegetables, fruits, and beverages was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. In all subjects, average intake of all flavonoids combined was 23 mg/day. The most important flavonoid was the flavonol quercetin (mean intake 16 mg/day). The most important sources of flavonoids were tea (48% of total intake), onions (29%), and apples (7%). Flavonoid intake did not vary between seasons; it was not correlated with total energy intake (r = 0.001), and it was only weakly correlated with the intake of vitamin A (retinol equivalents, r = 0.14), dietary fiber (r = 0.21), and vitamin C (r = 0.26). Our use of new analytic technology suggests that in the past flavonoid intake has been overestimated fivefold. However, on a milligram-per-day basis, the intake of the antioxidant flavonoids still exceeded that of the antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamin E. Thus flavonoids represent an important source of antioxidants in the human diet.
authors.affiliation: DLO-State Institute for Quality Control of Agricultural Products (RIKILT-DLO), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Hertog
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hollman
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Katan
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kromhout
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016588:Anticarcinogenic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005260:Female; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D044948:Flavonols; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009426:Netherlands
chemical_list: D016588:Anticarcinogenic Agents; D005419:Flavonoids; D044948:Flavonols