Development of a reference database for assessing dietary nitrate in vegetables

Authors

Lauren BlekkenhorstFollow
Richard Prince
Natalie Ward
Kevin Croft
Joshua Lewis
Amanda Devine, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Sujata Shinde
Richard Woodman
Jonathan M. Hodgson, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Catherine P. Bondonno, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Author Identifier

Amanda Devine
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6978-6249
Jonathan Hodgson
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6184-7764
Catherine Bondonno
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-439X

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Wiley-VCH Verlag

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

24068

Funders

National Health and Medical Research Council

Grant Number

NHMRC Number: 1066048

Grant Link

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1066048

Comments

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:
Blekkenhorst, L. C., Prince, R. L., Ward, N. C., Croft, K. D., Lewis, J. R., Devine, A., ... & Bondonno, C. P. (2017). Development of a reference database for assessing dietary nitrate in vegetables. Molecular nutrition & food research, 61(8), which has been published in final form at:

https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.201600982

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.201600982

Abstract

Scope:

Nitrate from vegetables improves vascular health with short-term intake. Whether this translates into improved long-term health outcomes has yet to be investigated. To enable reliable analysis of nitrate intake from food records, there is a strong need for a comprehensive nitrate content of vegetables database.

Methods and results:

A systematic literature search (1980–2016) was performed using Medline, Agricola and Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux abstracts databases. The nitrate content of vegetables database contains 4237 records from 255 publications with data on 178 vegetables and 22 herbs and spices. The nitrate content of individual vegetables ranged from Chinese flat cabbage (median; range: 4240; 3004–6310 mg/kg FW) to corn (median; range: 12; 5–1091 mg/kg FW). The database was applied to estimate vegetable nitrate intake using 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDRs) and food frequency questionnaires (FFQs). Significant correlations were observed between urinary nitrate excretion and 24-HDR (r = 0.4, P = 0.013), between 24-HDR and 12 month FFQs (r = 0.5, P < 0.001) as well as two 4 week FFQs administered 8 weeks apart (r = 0.86, P < 0.001).

Conclusion:

This comprehensive nitrate database allows quantification of dietary nitrate from a large variety of vegetables. It can be applied to dietary records to explore the associations between nitrate intake and health outcomes in human studies.

DOI

10.1002/mnfr.201600982