Plasma carotenoid levels in Dutch men and women, and the relation with vegetable and fruit consumption

Abstract

Objective: Fruit and vegetable intake is inversely associated with cancer risk in many epidemiological studies. Accurate assessment of consumption of these foods is difficult, and biomarkers of intake would overcome several drawbacks of currently used dietary assessment methods. Therefore, we investigated the relation between plasma carotenoids and usual vegetable and fruit intake. Design: Plasma carotenoid concentrations were measured and vegetable, fruit and juice consumption was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in a random sample of 591 Dutch men and women aged 20-59 y from the MORGEN-project, one of the contributions to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-study. Results: In this sample of the general Dutch population, in both genders, relative to the other carotenoids, plasma b-cryptoxanthin was the best indicator for fruit intake, and for the sum of vegetable, fruit and juice intake, while lutein concentrations best reflected intake of vegetables, although quartiles of intake were not consistently separated. Since levels of lycopene were not associated with any of the main food groups examined, associations with total carotenoids improved when excluding lycopene, and monotonously increasing plasma levels were seen for intakes of vegetables, of fruits, and of the sum of vegetables, fruits and juices. Several vegetable types and orange/ grapefruit juice were associated with plasma levels of one of the carotenoids. Conclusion: Plasma carotenoids were only crude indicators of vegetable and fruit intake as assessed by a FFQ; b-cryptoxanthin for fruit intake and lutein for vegetable intake. None of the plasma carotenoids could distinguish all four quartiles of vegetables, fruit and/or juice intake.

Influence of habitual diet on antioxidant status: a study in a population of vegetarians and omnivores

“…Similarly, plasma b-cryptoxanthin level positively associated with fruits (especially citrus variety) intake. These findings are consistent with the results from major databases, which contain information on the main sources of carotenoids in foods (O'Neill et al, 2001;Garcia-Closas et al, 2004), suggesting that there are good correlations between carotenoid intake from foods and the respective carotenoid levels in plasma, findings supported by other epidemiological/ intervention studies (Trichopoulou et al, 2003;Brevik et al, 2004;Jansen et al, 2004). Epidemiological studies have shown negative associations between plasma level of several carotenoids and the risk of chronic degenerative diseases including cancers (Sato et al, 2002;Abnet et al, 2003;Steck-Scott et al, 2004), stroke (Hak et al, 2004) and macular degeneration (Gale et al, 2003).…”

Carotenoid, Tocopherol, and Fatty Acid Biomarkers and Dietary Intake Estimated by Using a Brief Self-Administered Diet History Questionnaire for Older Japanese Children and Adolescents

“…This observation is supported by previous reports, which also did not find significant correlations for lycopene (36,37). It is difficult to assess lycopene intake from pizza and foods using tomato sauces, which children prefer.…”

Plasma carotenoids as biomarkers of intake of fruits and vegetables: individual-level correlations in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

“…In our study, which included results from nine countries with varying intakes, a-carotene and lutein were moderately correlated to total vegetable intake. Two more recent Dutch studies also found b-cryptoxanthin to be the carotenoid most strongly correlated to fruits (r ¼ 0.42) and fruits and vegetables (r ¼ 0.41) (Bogers et al, 2004;Jansen et al, 2004). The latter study was carried out by scientists participating in the Dutch component of the EPIC study.…”