Assessment of Plant Sterols in the Diet of Adult Polish Population with the Use of a Newly Developed Database.

Anna Maria Witkowska,Małgorzata Elżbieta Zujko,Iwona Mirończuk-Chodakowska,Alicja Cicha-Mikołajczyk,Anna Waśkiewicz,Wojciech Drygas

doi:10.3390/nu13082722

Anna Maria Witkowska, Małgorzata Elżbieta Zujko + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082722

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Abstract

Plant sterols are compounds with multiple biological functions, mainly cholesterol-reducing. There are no comprehensive databases on plant sterols, which makes it difficult to estimate their intake in the Polish population. This work attempted to use international food databases, additionally supplemented by scientific data from the literature, to create a database of plant sterols, which would cover various kinds of foods and dishes consumed in Poland. The aim was to assess the size and sources of dietary plant sterols in the adult population of Poland. The literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify possible sources of published food composition data for plant sterols. The study group consisted of 5690 participants of the WOBASZ II survey. We identified 361 dietary sources of plant sterols based on the consumption of foods and dishes reported by participants. Cereals and fats provided 61% of the total plant sterols, and together with vegetables and fruits, this totaled 80%. The median intake of plant sterols in the Polish population was 255.96 mg/day, and for men and women 291.76 and 230.61 mg/day, respectively. Canola oil provided the most plant sterols at 16.92%, followed by white bread at 16.65% and soft margarine at 8.33%. The study found that plant sterol intake in Poland is comparable to other populations, and women’s diets are more dense in plant sterols. Due to the lack of literature sources on plant sterol content in some foods, future studies should expand and complete the databases on plant sterol content in foods.

Highlights

Introduction iationsPlant sterols are bioactive phytocompounds with a molecular structure similar to cholesterol [1]
Due to the lack of plant sterols in Polish food composition tables, the database used for this study included international databases available in English supplemented with data from research papers on plant sterol contents in food products
24-h recall does not account for variability in food intake and may not describe a typical diet. This is the first study to evaluate the intake of plant sterols in the Polish population

Summary

Introduction

Introduction iationsPlant sterols are bioactive phytocompounds with a molecular structure similar to cholesterol [1]. The absorption of dietary cholesterol from diets rich in phytosterols is reduced by various mechanisms, mainly associated with the displacement of cholesterol from lipid micelles [2]. More than 250 phytosterols have been identified, which include plant sterols and their saturated forms, stanols [3,4]. Β-sitosterol is predominant and accounts for approximately 80% of the phytosterol intake in the diet [5]. Clinical evidence shows that phytosterols have a moderate LDL- and triglyceride-lowering effect [6,7]. Phytosterols are considered moderately active antioxidants [8] and have immunomodulatory properties [9]. A growing body of evidence suggests that phytosterols may be an alternative and/or complementary therapy

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