A NEW APPROACH TO NUTRITIVE ANALYSIS USING WATERMELON AS A CASE STUDY

Dietary strategies for disease prevention are most often viewed in discrete units so that only single nutrients associated with disease risk reduction are assessed at a time.
This approach diminishes the benefits of whole food nutrition.
For example, potassium has been shown to be associated with a reduced risk of hypertension.
One study measuring this effect showed significant risk reduction at a dose of ≥ 1142 mg/day.
The USDA’s nutrient database lists watermelon as containing 352mg potassium per 304 g fresh weight (2 cup) serving.
This equates to almost 30% of the dose for hypertension risk reduction from potassium, if consumed daily.
This is, however, not the limit of watermelon’s potential for disease prevention.
There are six other nutrients in watermelon that have been associated with risk reduction for this disease, and, when taken in total, these may have an additive effect in reducing risk.
This broader approach gives a more realistic and optimistic view of whole foods’ potential for disease prevention.
This study addresses 21 such cases, outlining a new kind of “total benefit”. Further, these amounts are compared to nutrient levels supplied by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) levels in order to broaden the approach to the whole diet.

II International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables: FAVHEALTH 2007

J.L. Jeffery, S.R. King

nutrition, disease prevention, risk reduction, diet, body systems, food, benefit, Dietary Reference Intake (DRI)

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.841.76