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Vitamins and plant ingredients

Fruit and vegetables consumption is associated with higher vitamin intake and blood vitamin status among European adolescents

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 71, pages 458–467 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Current research in adults indicates that fruit and vegetable (FAV) consumption increases serum levels of vitamins C, E and folate of β-carotene and reduces homocysteine concentrations. The aim of the present study was to examine the association of FAV consumption on vitamin intakes and their impact on blood vitamin concentrations in European adolescents.

Subject/Methods:

This multi-center cross-sectional study included 702 (53.7% females) adolescents, aged 12.50–17.49 years, from 10 European cities. Two independent self-administered 24 h dietary recalls were used to estimate the adolescent’s diet. The total energy, vitamins and FAV consumption were calculated. Adolescents were categorized into three groups: (i) very low FAV intake (<200 g/day); (ii) low FAV consumption (200–399 g/day) and (iii) adequate FAV consumption (⩾400 g/day). Adolescent’s fasted blood samples were taken for their analysis on vitamin concentrations.

Results:

The main results showed that those adolescents meeting the FAV recommendation, classified as FAV adequate consumers, presented higher intake of energy and some vitamins as B6, total folic acid, C, E and β-carotene compared with FAV very low consumers (P<0.05). Regarding their blood status, male adolescents who had a very low FAV consumption presented lower plasma folate, RBC folate blood concentrations compared with adequate FAV consumers (P<0.05). Female adequate FAV consumers had higher concentrations of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP), plasma folate, RBC folate, vitamin C, β-carotene and α-tocopherol compared with very low and low consumers (P<0.05).

Conclusions:

Having a FAV dairy intake above 400 g/day is associated with higher vitamin intake and blood vitamin concentrations, especially for antioxidant and B-vitamins concentrations.

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Acknowledgements

The HELENA study has taken place with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034). Additional support by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education (EX-2007-1124, EX-2008-0641, AP2006-02464; AGL2007-29784-E/ALI; AP-2005-3827), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (CH/018/2008), Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the ALPHA study, a European Union-funded study, in the framework of the Public Health Programme (Ref: 2006120), the Spanish Ministry of Health: Maternal, Child Health and Development Network (number RD08/0072) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), CIBER: CB12/03/30038 Pathophysiology of Nutrition and Obesity, Spain. We thank Rosa Maria Torres, Andre Spinneker, Ulrike Albers, Petra Pickert, Christel Bierschbach, Adelheid Schuch and Anke Berchtold for their contribution to laboratory work.

Author information

Author notes

  1. See Appendix.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Human Performance, ImFINE Research Group, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (INEF), Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    J Mielgo-Ayuso, J Valtueña, C Breidenassel & M González-Gross

  2. Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    I Huybrechts & S De Henauw

  3. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, CEDEX, France

    I Huybrechts

  4. Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    C Breidenassel, P Stehle & M González-Gross

  5. Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, Granada University, Granada, Spain

    M Cuenca-García

  6. Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education, Cádiz University, Cádiz, Spain

    M Cuenca-García

  7. Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Unit, University of Crete, School of Medicine, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    A Kafatos

  8. Research Institute of Child Nutrition Dortmund, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universitaät, Bonn, Germany

    M Kersting

  9. Department of Pediatrics,

    K Widhalm

  10. Private Medical University, Salzburg, Austria

    K Widhalm

  11. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

    Y Manios

  12. Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Center for Food and Nutrition, Rome 00178, Italy

    E Azzini

  13. Department of Paediatrics, Medical Faculty, University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary

    D Molnar

  14. GENUD (Growth, Exercise, NUtrition and Development) Research group, Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS Aragón),

    L A Moreno

  15. CIBER: CB12/03/30038 Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y la Nutrición, CIBERobn, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain

    L A Moreno & M González-Gross

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  1. J Mielgo-Ayuso
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on behalf of theHELENA Study group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M González-Gross.

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Appendix

Appendix

HELENA Study Group

Co-ordinator: Luis A Moreno.

Core Group members: Luis A Moreno, Fréderic Gottrand, Stefaan De Henauw, Marcela González-Gross and Chantal Gilbert.

Steering Committee: Anthony Kafatos (President), Luis A Moreno, Christian Libersa, Stefaan De Henauw, Sara Castelló, Fréderic Gottrand, Mathilde Kersting, Michael Sjöstrom, Dénes Molnár, Marcela González-Gross, Jean Dallongeville, Chantal Gilbert, Gunnar Hall, Lea Maes and Luca Scalfi.

Project Manager: Pilar Meléndez.

1. Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)

Luis A Moreno, Jesús Fleta, José A Casajús, Gerardo Rodríguez, Concepción Tomás, María I Mesana, Germán Vicente-Rodríguez, Adoración Villarroya, Carlos M Gil, Ignacio Ara, Juan Revenga, Carmen Lachen, Juan Fernández Alvira, Gloria Bueno, Aurora Lázaro, Olga Bueno, Juan F León, Jesús Mª Garagorri, Manuel Bueno, Idoia Labayen, Iris Iglesia, Silvia Bel, Luis A Gracia Marco and Theodora Mouratidou.

2. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain)

Ascensión Marcos, Julia Wärnberg, Esther Nova, Sonia Gómez, Ligia Esperanza Díaz, Javier Romeo, Ana Veses, Belén Zapatera, Tamara Pozo and David Martínez.

3. Université de Lille 2 (France)

Laurent Beghin, Christian Libersa, Frédéric Gottrand, Catalina Iliescu and Juliana Von Berlepsch.

4. Research Institute of Child Nutrition Dortmund, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Germany)

Mathilde Kersting, Wolfgang Sichert-Hellert and Ellen Koeppen.

5. Pécsi Tudományegyetem (University of Pécs) (Hungary)

Dénes Molnar, Eva Erhardt, Katalin Csernus, Katalin Török, Szilvia Bokor, Angster, Enikö Nagy, Orsolya Kovács and Judit Répasi.

6. University of Crete School of Medicine (Greece)

Anthony Kafatos, Caroline Codrington, María Plada, Angeliki Papadaki, Katerina Sarri, Anna Viskadourou, Christos Hatzis, Michael Kiriakakis, George Tsibinos, Constantine Vardavas, Manolis Sbokos, Eva Protoyeraki and Maria Fasoulaki.

7. Institut für Ernährungs- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften – Ernährungphysiologie. Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität (Germany)

Peter Stehle, Klaus Pietrzik, Marcela González-Gross, Christina Breidenassel, Andre Spinneker, Jasmin Benser, Miriam Segoviano, Anke Berchtold, Christine Bierschbach, Erika Blatzheim, Adelheid Schuch and Petra Pickert.

8. University of Granada (Spain)

Manuel J Castillo, Ángel Gutiérrez, Francisco B Ortega, Jonatan R Ruiz, Enrique G Artero, Vanesa España, David Jiménez-Pavón, Palma Chillón, Cristóbal Sánchez-Muñoz and Magdalena Cuenca-García.

9. Istituto Nazionalen di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione (Italy)

Davide Arcella, Elena Azzini, Emma Barrison, Noemi Bevilacqua, Pasquale Buonocore, Giovina Catasta, Laura Censi, Donatella Ciarapica, Paola D'Acapito, Marika Ferrari, Myriam Galfo, Cinzia Le Donne, Catherine Leclercq, Giuseppe Maiani, Beatrice Mauro, Lorenza Mistura, Antonella Pasquali, Raffaela Piccinelli, Angela Polito, Romana Roccaldo, Raffaella Spada, Stefania Sette and Maria Zaccaria.

10. University of Napoli "Federico II" Dept of Food Science (Italy)

Luca Scalfi, Paola Vitaglione and Concetta Montagnese.

11. Ghent University (Belgium)

Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Stefaan De Henauw, Tineke De Vriendt, Lea Maes, Christophe Matthys, Carine Vereecken, Mieke de Maeyer, Charlene Ottevaere and Inge Huybrechts.

12. Medical University of Vienna (Austria)

Kurt Widhalm, Katharina Phillipp, Sabine Dietrich and Birgit Kubelka Marion Boriss-Riedl.

13. Harokopio University (Greece)

Yannis Manios, Eva Grammatikaki, Zoi Bouloubasi, Tina Louisa Cook, Sofia Eleutheriou, Orsalia Consta, George Moschonis, Ioanna Katsaroli, George Kraniou, Stalo Papoutsou, Despoina Keke, Ioanna Petraki, Elena Bellou, Sofia Tanagra, Kostalenia Kallianoti, Dionysia Argyropoulou, Katerina Kondaki, Stamatoula Tsikrika and Christos Karaiskos.

14. Institut Pasteur de Lille (France)

Jean Dallongeville and Aline Meirhaeghe.

15. Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

Michael Sjöstrom, Jonatan R Ruiz, Francisco B Ortega, María Hagströmer, Anita Hurtig Wennlöf, Lena Hallström, Emma Patterson, Lydia Kwak, Julia Wärnberg and Nico Rizzo.

16. Asociación de Investigación de la Industria Agroalimentaria (Spain)

Jackie Sánchez-Molero, Sara Castelló, Elena Picó, Maite Navarro, Blanca Viadel, José Enrique Carreres, Gema Merino, Rosa Sanjuán, María Lorente and María José Sánchez.

17. Campden BRI (United Kingdom)

Chantal Gilbert, Sarah Thomas, Elaine Allchurch and Peter Burgess.

18. SIK - Institutet foer Livsmedel och Bioteknik (Sweden)

Gunnar Hall, Annika Astrom, Anna Sverkén and Agneta Broberg.

19. Meurice Recherche & Development asbl (Belgium)

Annick Masson, Claire Lehoux, Pascal Brabant, Philippe Pate and Laurence Fontaine.

20. Campden & Chorleywood Food Development Institute (Hungary)

Andras Sebok, Tunde Kuti and Adrienn Hegyi.

21. Productos Aditivos SA (Spain)

Cristina Maldonado and Ana Llorente.

22. Cárnicas Serrano SL (Spain)

Emilio García.

23. Cederroth International AB (Sweden)

Holger von Fircks, Marianne Lilja Hallberg and Maria Messerer

24. Lantmännen Food R&D (Sweden)

Mats Larsson, Helena Fredriksson, Viola Adamsson and Ingmar Börjesson.

25. European Food Information Council (Belgium)

Laura Fernández, Laura Smillie and Josephine Wills.

26. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)

Marcela González-Gross, Jara Valtueña, Raquel Pedrero-Chamizo, Gonzalo Palacios, Agustín Meléndez, Pedro J Benito, David Cañada, Juan Mielgo-Ayuso, Alejandro Urzanqui, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Francisco Fuentes, Juan José Gómez Lorente, David Jiménez-Pavón, Ulrike Albers, Rosa María Torres and Paloma Navarro.

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Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Valtueña, J., Huybrechts, I. et al. Fruit and vegetables consumption is associated with higher vitamin intake and blood vitamin status among European adolescents. Eur J Clin Nutr 71, 458–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.232

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.232

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