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Article

Fruits and Vegetables Increase Plasma Carotenoids and Vitamins and Decrease Homocysteine in Humans¹

Wendy M. R. Broekmans^*,,**2, Ineke A. A. Klöpping-Ketelaars^*, Caroelien R. W. C. Schuurman^*, Hans Verhagen^*, Henk van den Berg^*,**, Frans J. Kok and Geert van Poppel^*

^* TNO Nutrition and Food Research, 3700 AJ Zeist, The Netherlands; Division of Human Nutrition and Epidemiology, Wageningen UR, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands; and ^** TNO-WU Centre for Micronutrient Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

²To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Observational epidemiologic studies have shown that a high consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a decreased risk of chronic diseases. Little is known about the bioavailability of constituents from vegetables and fruits and the effect of these constituents on markers for disease risk. Currently, the recommendation is to increase intake of a mix of fruits and vegetables ("five a day"). We investigated the effect of this recommendation on plasma carotenoids, vitamins and homocysteine concentrations in a 4-wk dietary controlled, parallel intervention study. Male and female volunteers (n = 47) were allocated randomly to either a daily 500-g fruit and vegetable ("high") diet or a 100-g fruit and vegetable ("low") diet. Analyzed total carotenoid, vitamin C and folate concentrations of the daily high diet were 13.3 mg, 173 mg and 228.1 µg, respectively. The daily low diet contained 2.9 mg carotenoids, 65 mg vitamin C and 131.1 µg folate. Differences in final plasma levels between the high and low group were as follows: lutein, 46% [95% confidence interval (CI) 28–64]; ß-cryptoxanthin, 128% (98–159); lycopene, 22% (8–37); -carotene, 121% (94–149); ß-carotene, 45% (28–62); and vitamin C, 64% (51–77) (P < 0.05). The high group had an 11% (-18 to -4) lower final plasma homocysteine and a 15% (0.8–30) higher plasma folate concentration compared with the low group (P < 0.05). This is the first trial to show that a mix of fruits and vegetables, with a moderate folate content, decreases plasma homocysteine concentrations in humans.

KEY WORDS: • fruits • vegetables • carotenoids • vitamins • homocysteine • humans

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