Antioxidant intakes and food sources in Greek adults

Abstract

Antioxidants are compounds physiologically produced or provided through the diet with a potential to inhibit the oxidation of important biological molecules, such as proteins, lipids, and DNA. The contemporary Greek diet is still strongly influenced by Mediterranean dietary traditions. The traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) is a plant-based diet with apparently beneficial health properties, to which a high antioxidant content may contribute. To explore this issue in detail, a database of the content of >200 Greek foods and recipes for a wide spectrum of antioxidant compounds and indices (flavonoids, proanthocyannidins, other antioxidant microcomponents, and total antioxidant capacity) was developed. The database enabled the estimation of antioxidant intakes in Greece using the population-based European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, in which >28,000 Greeks participate. The results of this work suggest that the contemporary MD in the Greek population is a rich source of a variety of antioxidants. These data can be used in studies about the relationship between antioxidant intake and chronic diseases in the Greek population.