A food composition database for assessing nitrate intake from plant-based foods.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Descriptive food composition database compilation (graded by non-clinical design analogy)
PubMed 35753259 · doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133411
What was done
Authors expanded and updated a 2017 plant nitrate database by compiling literature published between 1980 and 2021 covering nitrate concentrations in vegetables, fruits, cereals, herbs, spices, pulses, and nuts across 64 countries.
What was found
Nitrate contents were collated for 264 plant-based foods, with 120 supported by three or more references. The abstract provides no specific numeric concentrations, but ranks relative content: leaf vegetables were highest, followed by stem and shoot vegetables, herbs and spices, root vegetables, flower vegetables, tuber vegetables, nuts, fruit vegetables, legume/seed vegetables, fruits, and cereals. Bananas and strawberries showed higher nitrate content than previously recognized.
Why it matters
Provides an updated reference database to more reliably quantify plant-derived dietary nitrate intake in clinical and epidemiological research.
Limits
The abstract reports no absolute numeric concentrations or variance metrics. More than half of the included foods (144 of 264) rely on fewer than three published references, and substantial variation among underlying reports was noted.
Cited by
- context Arugula is the food with the highest concentration of dietary nitrate/nitric oxide precursors, followed by cacao and beetroot juice powder.