Intake and Profile of Plant Polyphenols in the Diet of the Czech Population

Abstract

Nowadays, a great attention is paid to the biological activity of plant polyphenols and their potential importance for the human health. Therefore knowledge regarding the dietary intake of polyphenols and their particular subclasses has gained interest. In this report, the results of a pilot study evaluating the average polyphenol content in the Czech diet have been presented.Knowledge of the average intake of plant polyphenols is an important contribution to the evaluation of the dietary pattern from the aspect of its health impact.An annual average consumption of the main foods of plant origin (a total of 80 commodities) was estimated, using data from the Czech annual statistical report, in the entire Czech population in 2013. These values (kg/y) were multiplied with the contents of plant polyphenols in the same items as presented in the in the database Phenol Explorer.The average intake of plant polyphenols was 426 mg/d. The prevailing polyphenols were chlorogenic acid, 82 mg/d (most important sources were potatoes, coffee, plums), followed by apigeninfl avone, 79 mg/d (wheat), heneicosylresorcinol, 38 mg/d (wheat), ferrulic acid, 17 mg/d (wheat) and anthocyanin malvidin, 13 mg/d (red wine). These values are below the intake of polyphenols in the most EU countries.These differences refl ect -inter alia -the fact that beer having low content of polyphenols is a dominant commodity in Czech dietary pattern while fruit and vegetables as well as teas and coffee consumption is relatively low.