## 4 Discussion  
Dietary polyphenols have been studied for their potential beneficial effect on human health and disease prevention [2; 3; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 44; 45; 46; 47]. Nevertheless, their bioactivity is dependent on their bioavailability, which differs in the various polyphenol subcategories [15; 16; 17]. For this reason, recommendations for polyphenol intake have not yet been established [2; 44]. According to epidemiological studies which aimed to investigate polyphenols intake, an approximate mean intake of about 900 mg/day has been proposed. However, further investigation is strongly recommended for improved dietary polyphenols assessment methods, standardized and validated analytical procedures, implementation of food databases containing polyphenol subcategories, and validation of specific biomarkers that are affected by polyphenols [44]. The first result of the present study was that the mean daily polyphenols intake of the Greek participants was 1905 mg, while most of the participants had moderate or high polyphenols intake (1000-2000 or \(>\) 2000 mg/day). Our study is one of the first that could contribute to progress in the investigation of polyphenols consumption in the Greek population. Nevertheless, the results cannot be representative of the Greek population due to the small sample size (\(n\) = 244) and given the fact that 75% of the subjects belong to the age group 18-35. These results are in accordance with other studies that investigated the mean polyphenols intake in different countries, using FFQ or 24 h-recall and polyphenols databases, such as Phenol Explorer [16; 17; 18; 19]. However, we must emphasize that in other studies, results are obtained with a much larger number of subjects involved. [PERSON] et al. estimated the mean polyphenols consumption in 4492 men and women in France to be 1193 \(\pm\) 510 mg/d, with hydroxycinnamic acid esters and proanthocyanidins being the most consumed polyphenols [17]. In Poland, [PERSON] et al. estimated in 10,447 participants of the HAPPIE study an average of 1756.5 \(\pm\) 695.8 mg polyphenols consumption per day, with an increased amount of coffee, cocoa, and tea polyphenols [19]. Nevertheless, in the PREDIMED study, a multicenter, randomized, and controlled trial, the mean total polyphenols in 7200 Spanish participants were estimated to have lower values, specifically 820 \(\pm\) 323 mg per day, with hydroxcinnamic acids having the highest consumption and 5-caffeoylquinic acid being the highest ingested individual polyphenol [18]. The second finding of the present study was that increased polyphenols intake was associated with higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet (increased Med Diet Score). This represents an expected and predictable result, given the fact that several studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet is correlated with an increase in polyphenols intake [29; 30; 45; 46]. The Mediterranean diet is proposed as a balanced, nutritional model with a possible protective effect on human health, and is characterized by increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, olive oil, cereals, and fish and decreased consumption of meat, sugar, and saturated fatty acids. The possible effect of this diet on disease pathophysiological