Dietary intake of polyamines in a Spanish adult population: Age-dependent correlation with Healthy Eating Index and Dietary Inflammatory Index scores

Objectives

A healthy and balanced diet is crucial to maintaining optimal health. Understanding the benefits of different food components is essential. The polyamine spermidine is linked to age-related disease protection, but daily intakes and whether these vary with age are unknown. This study aimed to determine polyamine intake in a Mediterranean diet population and its association with participants’ age and Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores.

Methods

A database was created with references concerning polyamine content in foods to determine the daily intake of foods frequently consumed by 203 participants (84 males and 119 females), ages 18 to 90 y, using a nutritional survey (VioScreen) that includes HEI and DII scores.

Results

The participants’ characteristics were as reported in the corresponding 2020 Spanish nutritional survey. Two-thirds demonstrated moderate to high adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The mean HEI score was 74.45 (out of 100), and the mean DII was −1.94 (anti-inflammatory). The median intake of polyamines was 45.59 mg/d/person (mean, 46.89 mg/d/person, 410.57 µmol/d/person), without sex differences. After normalizing the intake per kilocalorie, the Kruskal–Wallis test showed significant differences among age groups for total polyamines ingested, putrescine, and spermidine. The intake of putrescine and spermidine was significantly higher in the 60 to 69 age group compared with the 24 to 59 and 18 to 23 age groups, respectively. HEI scores were positively correlated with polyamine intake, whereas DII scores were negatively correlated.

Conclusions

Polyamine intake was higher than reported in other populations, did not decrease based on age, and was associated with healthy eating and anti-inflammatory foods.