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MDPI, Antioxidants, 3(10), p. 473, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/antiox10030473

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High Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Moderate Fat Intake Are Associated with Higher Carotenoid Concentration in Human Plasma

Journal article published in 2021 by María Marhuenda-Muñoz ORCID, José Fernando Rinaldi de Alvarenga ORCID, Álvaro Hernáez ORCID, Anna Tresserra-Rimbau ORCID, Miguel Ángel Martínez-González ORCID, Jordi Salas-Salvadó ORCID, Dolores Corella ORCID, Mireia Malcampo ORCID, José Alfredo Martínez ORCID, Ángel M. Alonso-Gómez ORCID, Julia Wärnberg ORCID, Jesús Vioque ORCID, Dora Romaguera ORCID, José López-Miranda ORCID, Ramón Estruch ORCID and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Carotenoids are pigments contained mainly in fruit and vegetables (F&V) that have beneficial effects on cardiometabolic health. Due to their lipophilic nature, co-ingestion of fat appears to increase their bioavailability via facilitating transfer to the aqueous micellar phase during digestion. However, the extent to which high fat intake may contribute to increased carotenoid plasma concentrations is still unclear. The objective was to examine the degree to which the consumption of different amounts of both carotenoid-rich foods and fats is associated with plasma carotenoid concentrations within a Mediterranean lifestyle context (subsample from the PREDIMED-Plus study baseline) where consumption of F&V and fat is high. The study population was categorized into four groups according to their self-reported consumption of F&V and fat. Carotenoids were extracted from plasma samples and analyzed by HPLC-UV-VIS-QqQ-MS/MS. Carotenoid systemic concentrations were greater in high consumers of F&V than in low consumers of these foods (+3.04 μmol/L (95% CI: 0.90, 5.17), p-value = 0.005), but circulating concentrations seemed to decrease when total fat intake was very high (−2.69 μmol/L (−5.54; 0.16), p-value = 0.064). High consumption of F&V is associated with greater systemic levels of total carotenoids, in particular when fat intake is low-to-moderate rather than very high.