Tracking Fluoride in the National Food
Supply
By Rosalie Marion Bliss
November 9, 2004
The Agricultural Research
Service has launched a database that lists the level of fluoride in 400
separate food and beverage items. The list will be important to researchers who
strive to estimate the amount of fluoride that individuals consume daily.
For more than half a century, to prevent tooth decay, small amounts of
fluoride have been added to many U.S. municipal water supplies. That fluoride,
as well as naturally occurring fluoride from wells and other water sources,
subsequently finds its way into water-based beverages and foods.
An Adequate Intake level has been set for fluoride at 3 milligrams
(mgs) daily for women and 4 mgs daily for men. But until now, scant data
existed on the quantity of fluoride in the national food supply.
The USDA National Fluoride Database of Selected Beverages and Foods
was posted last month on the World Wide Web. The project was coordinated by
nutritionist
Rena
Cutrufelli with the ARS
Nutrient
Data Laboratory, which is part of the agency's
Beltsville
(Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center.
The project is part of an interagency agreement between the ARS
Beltsville laboratory, the National
Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the
National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute, both in Bethesda, Md.
The new compilation is based on acceptable data extracted from reviews
of existing scientific literature, as well as on data analyzed by scientists at
the University of Iowa College of
Dentistry, in Iowa City.
The data is also part of a food-and-beverage intake survey tool now
being developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota Nutrition
Coordinating Center (NCC). That tool will
be used to assess the amount of fluoride individuals consume from dietary and
nondietary sources, including fluoride supplements and toothpastes.
To access the new database on the Internet, go to:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=6312
Read
more about this research in the November issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.