Marhuenda Muñoz, MaríaMalcampo, MireiaZomeño Fajardo, Maria DoloresSchröder, Helmut, 1958-Fitó Colomer, MontserratLamuela-Raventós, Rosa M.2021-08-312021-08-312021Marhuenda-Muñoz M, Rinaldi de Alvarenga JF, Hernáez Á, Tresserra-Rimbau A, Martínez-González MÁ, Salas-Salvadó J et al. High fruit and vegetable consumption and moderate fat intake are associated with higher carotenoid concentration in human plasma. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021;10(3):473. DOI: 10.3390/antiox100304732076-3921http://hdl.handle.net/10230/48348Carotenoids 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.application/pdfeng© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antiox10030473Mediterranean dietPREDIMED-Plus studyBioactive compoundsDietary fatsLiquid chromatographyMass spectrometryMatrix effect absorptionPhytochemicalsPlasma carotenoidsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess