A Computational Approach for Identifying Plant-Based Foods for Addressing Vitamin Deficiency Diseases

Author

Christina Yu, University of VermontFollow
Indra Neil Sarkar, University of VermontFollow

Date of Completion

2015

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Biochemistry

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Indra Neil Sarkar

Keywords

computing methodologies, vitamin deficiency diseases, vegetarian diet

Abstract

Vitamins are nutrients that are essential to human health, and deficiencies have been shown to cause severe diseases. In this study, a computational approach was used to identify vitamin deficiency diseases and plant-based foods with vitamin content. Data from the United States Department of Agriculture Standard Reference (SR27), National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings and MEDLINE, and Wikipedia were combined to identify vitamin deficiency diseases and vitamin content of plant-based foods. A total of 41,584 vitamin-disease associations were identified from MEDLINE-indexed articles as well as from entries in Wikipedia. The SR27 identified 1912 foods that contained at least one vitamin, with an average of 1276 foods per vitamin. Vitamin B12 and D contained the fewest number of foods (n=135 and 70, respectively). The results of this study establish the foundation for developing a process to link vitamin deficiency diseases to vitamin-rich foods.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Yu, Christina and Sarkar, Indra Neil, "A Computational Approach for Identifying Plant-Based Foods for Addressing Vitamin Deficiency Diseases" (2015). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 212.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/212