PHENOLIC-ACID INTAKE OF ADULTS IN A BAVARIAN SUBGROUP OF THE NATIONALFOOD-CONSUMPTION SURVEY

Phenolic acids, essentially hydroxycinnamic acids and hydroxybenzoic a cids, are secondary plant products and commonly found in plant derived foodstuff. The antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties of phenoli c acids could be one of the facts to explain the inverse association b etween fruit and vegetable intake and the incidence of coronary heart disease and cancer, respectively, as found in epidemiologic studies. P henolic acids are rarely listed in food composition tables and there a re no dietary intake data available. Consequently, a data base contain ing the phenolic acid content of foods (literatur data) was built and 7-d dietary protocols of 63 women and 56 men of a Bavarian subpopulati on (age 19-49 years) of the German National Food Consumption Survey (N VS) were evaluated. The average phenolic acid intake of men and women is 222 mg/d within a large range. The dominating one within all the ph enolic acids is clearly caffeic acid (206 mg/d); the intake of the oth er phenolic acids amounts to 0.2 (gentisic acid) up to 5.2 mg/d (ellag ic acid). The sum of hydroxybenzoic acids and hydroxycinnamic acids am ounts to 11 mg/d and 211 mg/d, respectively. Significant sex differenc es are found for some of the phenolic acids. Especially, the average i ntake of caffeic acid of women (229 mg/d) is higher than that of men ( 179 mg/d) caused by the high amount of coffee consumption. The age gro up ''25-49 years'' is consuming more coffee than the age group ''19-24 years'' and, therefore, reveals a significantly higher intake of caff eic acid. The major sources of phenolic acids are coffee with 92 % of the caffeic acid intake and fruits (including fruit products and juice s) with 75 % of the salycilic acid and 59 % of the p-coumaric acid int ake. Consequently, phenolic acids are consumed in considerable amounts with food. Since antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties of pheno lic acids are already proven in in vitro as well as in animal experime nts, epidemiologic studies will show whether a high phenolic acid inta ke goes ahead with a reduced risk for coronary heart disease or cancer in humans.