Consumption of vegetables, fruit and other plant foods in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohorts from 10 European countries

Abstract

Objective: To describe and compare the consumption of the main groups and subgroups of vegetables and fruits (V&F) in men and women from the centres participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Design: Cross-sectional analysis. Dietary intake was assessed by means of a 24-hour dietary recall using computerised interview software and standardised procedures. Crude and adjusted means were computed for the main groups and sub-groups of V&F by centre, separately for men and women. Adjusted means by season, day of the week and age were estimated using weights and covariance analysis. Setting: Twenty-seven centres in 10 European countries participating in the EPIC project. Subjects: In total, 35 955 subjects (13 031 men and 22 924 women), aged 35 -74 years, randomly selected from each EPIC cohort. Results: The centres from southern countries had the highest consumption of V&F, while the lowest intake was seen in The Netherlands and Scandinavia for both genders. These differences were more evident for fruits, particularly citrus. However, slightly different patterns arose for some sub-groups of vegetables, such as root vegetables and cabbage. Adjustment for body mass index, physical activity, smoking habits and education did not substantially modify the mean intakes of vegetables and fruits. Conclusions: Total vegetable and fruit intake follows a south-north gradient in both genders, whereas for several sub-groups of vegetables a different geographic distribution exists. Differences in mean intake of V&F by centre were not explained by lifestyle factors associated with V&F intake.

Consumption of cruciferous vegetables and glucosinolates in a Spanish adult population

“…We found that glucosinolate intake is higher among more educated people, those with higher physical activity, and former smokers, and it tends to decrease with increasing alcohol consumption. This is not surprising, as a similar pattern has already been shown for consumption of vegetables (Agudo et al, 2002). However, although our study found statistically significant differences in the consumption of glucosinolates given its huge sample size, the absolute differences are actually quite small.…”

“…Compared with other European countries within the EPIC study (Agudo et al, 2002), Spain has the lowest consumption, quite close to Greece (13 g/day), and slightly lower than in Sweden, Denmark and Italy, all of them with daily intakes below 20 g. France and the Netherlands consumed between 20 and 30 g per day, whereas Germany, Norway and the UK had daily consumption above 30 g, almost three times the estimated consumption in Spain. This pattern is quite different from the one of overall vegetable intake, which showed a clear South-North gradient; this discrepancy is well appreciated when consumption of cruciferous is expressed as a proportion of total vegetable intake: in countries with high consumption of cruciferous vegetables, they account for more than 20%, whereas in countries with low consumption, they account only for 5-10% of total vegetable intake.…”

Flavonoid intake and breast cancer risk: a case–control study in Greece

“…A source of concern is that vegetables were more strongly inversely associated with breast cancer risk in this Greek study than in other case -control and particularly cohort investigations (World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Prevention, 1997;SmithWarner et al, 2001;Lagiou et al, 2002). However, consumption of vegetables and variability of consumption is higher in the Greek population than in most other populations (Agudo et al, 2002) and Greek food patterns are characterised by high consumption of wild greens that are rich in flavones (Trichopoulou et al, 2001).…”

Intakes of plant foods, fibre and fat and risk of breast cancer – a prospective study in the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort

“…The intakes of fruit and vegetables in the MDC cohort might be too low and too homogenous to examine any effect. As indicated by food intake data from the calibration study within the European Prospective Investigation into Nutrition and Cancer (EPIC), the MDC subcohort has among the lowest intakes of both fruit and vegetables in the EPIC study centres (Agudo et al, 2003).…”