BackgroundA plant-based diet protects against chronic oxidative stress-related diseases. Dietary plants contain variable chemical families and amounts of antioxidants. It has been hypothesized that plant antioxidants may contribute to the beneficial health effects of dietary plants. Our objective was to develop a comprehensive food database consisting of the total antioxidant content of typical foods as well as other dietary items such as traditional medicine plants, herbs and spices and dietary supplements. This database is intended for use in a wide range of nutritional research, from in vitro and cell and animal studies, to clinical trials and nutritional epidemiological studies.MethodsWe procured samples from countries worldwide and assayed the samples for their total antioxidant content using a modified version of the FRAP assay. Results and sample information (such as country of origin, product and/or brand name) were registered for each individual food sample and constitute the Antioxidant Food Table.ResultsThe results demonstrate that there are several thousand-fold differences in antioxidant content of foods. Spices, herbs and supplements include the most antioxidant rich products in our study, some exceptionally high. Berries, fruits, nuts, chocolate, vegetables and products thereof constitute common foods and beverages with high antioxidant values.ConclusionsThis database is to our best knowledge the most comprehensive Antioxidant Food Database published and it shows that plant-based foods introduce significantly more antioxidants into human diet than non-plant foods. Because of the large variations observed between otherwise comparable food samples the study emphasizes the importance of using a comprehensive database combined with a detailed system for food registration in clinical and epidemiological studies. The present antioxidant database is therefore an essential research tool to further elucidate the potential health effects of phytochemical antioxidants in diet.
This ranked antioxidant food table provides a useful tool for investigations into the possible health benefit of dietary antioxidants.
A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and minimally refined cereals is associated with lower risk for chronic degenerative diseases. Since oxidative stress is common in chronic degenerative disease, it has been assumed that dietary antioxidants may explain this protective effect. Every dietary plant contains numerous types of antioxidants with different properties. Many of these antioxidants cooperate in oxidative stress reduction in plants, and we hypothesize that many different antioxidants may also be needed for the proper protection of animal cells. To test this hypothesis, it is useful to identify dietary plants with high total antioxidant content. Several nuts are among the dietary plants with the highest content of total antioxidants. Of the tree nuts, walnuts, pecans and chestnuts have the highest contents of antioxidants. Walnuts contain more than 20 mmol antioxidants per 100 g, mostly in the walnut pellicles. Peanuts (a legume) also contribute significantly to dietary intake of antioxidants. These data are in accordance with our present extended analysis of an earlier report on nut intake and death attributed to various diseases in the Iowa Women's Health Study. We observed that the hazard ratio for total death rates showed a U-shaped association with nut/peanut butter consumption. Hazard ratio was 0·89 (CI ¼ 0·81 -0·97) and 0·81 (CI ¼ 0·75 -0·88) for nut/peanut butter intake once per week and 1-4 times per week, respectively. Death attributed to cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases showed strong and consistent reductions with increasing nut/peanut butter consumption. Further studies are needed to clarify whether antioxidants contribute to this apparent beneficial health effect of nuts. Nuts: Antioxidants: LDL oxidation: Flavonoids: FRAP: Antioxidant defence: Oxidative damageNuts are not easily defined in a manner that would be both compatible with popular usage and acceptable to botanists. For example, the groundnut or peanut is a legume, and the chufa nut, which is common in south Europe and Africa, is a tuber. Some languages such as French, even lack an umbrella word equivalent to nuts. 'Noix' in French looks like one, but just means walnuts. In this text we will not only include botanically defined nuts, but will also include data on some foods which have traditionally been defined as nuts.Nuts are highly nutritious and of prime importance for people in several regions in Asia and Africa. Most nuts contain a great deal of fat (e.g. pecan 70 %, macadamia nut 66 %, Brazil nut 65 %, walnut 60 %, almonds 55 % and peanut butter 55 %). Most have a good protein content (in the 10 -30 % range), and only a few have a very high starch content (Davidson, 1999). Recently, many nuts have also been identified as especially rich in antioxidants (Halvorsen et al. 2002;Wu et al. 2004). Nuts therefore constitute one of the most nutritionally concentrated kinds of food available. Most nuts, left in their shell, have a remarkably long shelf-life and can conveniently be stored for winter use.The aim of this paper is ...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.