Emilio Ros, Jessica Vaquero-Luna, Aurora Bueno-Cavanillas, Rosa Carabaño-Moral, Estefanía Toledo, Stephanie K. Nishi, José Lapetra, Itziar Abete, Mercè Serra-Mir, Antonio Garcia-Rios, Anna Tresserra-Rimbau, Ana María Gómez-Pérez, José V. Sorlí, María Marhuenda-Muñoz, Josep Vidal, Jose Lopez-Miranda, Álvaro Hernáez, Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez, Lidia Daimiel, Jesús Vioque, Josep Basora, Xavier Pintó, Ramon Estruch, Helmut Schröder, José Alfredo Martínez, Zenaida Vázquez-Ruiz, Josep A. Tur, J. LLuís Serra-Majem, Miriam Martínez-Huélamo, Vicente Martín Sánchez, Nancy Babio, Leyre Notario-Barandiaran, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós, Julia Wärnberg, Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, Marga Morey, Montse Fitó, Maria Angeles Zulet, Itziar Salaverria-Lete, María Dolores Zomeño, Pilar Buil-Cosiales, Dolores Corella, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Francisco J. Tinahones, Olga Portolés, José Manuel Santos-Lozano, Ángel M. Alonso-Gómez, José Fernando Rinaldi de Alvarenga, Pilar Matía-Martín, Mireia Malcampo, Clotilde Vázquez, and Dora Romaguera
This research was funded by CICYT [AGL2016-75329-R] and CIBEROBN from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ISCIII from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, (AEI/FEDER, UE), Generalitat de Catalunya (GC) [2017SGR196]. The PREDIMED-Plus trial was supported by the official Spanish Institutions for funding scientific biomedical research, CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through the Fondo de Investigación para la Salud (FIS), which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (four coordinated Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias projects lead by J.S.-S. and J.V., including the following projects: PI13/00673, PI13/00492, PI13/00272, PI13/01123, PI13/00462, PI13/00233, PI13/02184, PI13/00728, PI13/01090, PI13/01056, PI14/01722, PI14/00636, PI14/00618, PI14/00696, PI14/01206, PI14/01919, PI14/00853, PI14/01374, PI14/00972, PI14/00728, PI14/01471, PI16/00473, PI16/00662, PI16/01873, PI16/01094, PI16/00501, PI16/00533, PI16/00381, PI16/00366, PI16/01522, PI16/01120, PI17/00764, PI17/01183, PI17/00855, PI17/01347, PI17/00525, PI17/01827, PI17/00532, PI17/00215, PI17/01441, PI17/00508, PI17/01732, PI17/00926 and PI19/00781), the Especial Action Project entitled Implementación y evaluación de una intervención intensiva sobre la actividad física Cohorte PREDIMED-Plus grant to J.S.-S., European Research Council (Advanced Research Grant 2014–2019, 340918) to M.Á.M.-G., the Recercaixa grant to J.S.-S. (2013ACUP00194), grants from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (PI0458/2013, PS0358/2016, and PI0137/2018), a grant from the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2017/017), a SEMERGEN grant, Fundació la Marató de TV3 (PI044003), 2017 SGR 1717 from Generalitat de Catalunya, a CICYT grant provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (AGL2016-75329-R), and funds from the European Regional Development Fund (CB06/03). Food companies Hojiblanca (Lucena, Spain) and Patrimonio Comunal Olivarero (Madrid, Spain) donated extra virgin olive oil, and the Almond Board of California (Modesto, CA, USA), American Pistachio Growers (Fresno, CA, USA), and Paramount Farms (Wonderful Company, LLC, Los Angeles, CA, USA) donated nuts. J.K. was supported by the “FOLIUM” program within the FUTURMed project entitled Talent for the medicine within the future from the Fundació Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Illes Balears. This call was co-financed at 50% with charge to the Operational Program FSE 2014-2020 of the Balearic Islands. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme to J.S-S. M.M.-M. is supported by the FPU17/00513 grant, J.F.R.d.A. is supported by the FAPESP [2019/11324-8, 2013/07914-8] grants, Á.-H. is supported by the [CD17/00122] grant., We thank all the volunteers for their participation in and the personnel for their contribution to the PREDIMED-Plus trial. M.M.-M. would like to thank Dennis Helsel and Emily P. Laveriano-Santos for their valuable help and support with the statistical treatment of the data, the CCiT UB facility for the LC-MS/MS equipment support, Esperanza Muñoz-Cano for the English advice and Carlos Guimerà-Esteve for the graphical abstract design., 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 mu mol/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 mu mol/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., Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CICYT) European Commission AGL2016-75329-R, CIBEROBN from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ISCIII from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, (AEI/FEDER), Generalitat de Catalunya 2017SGR196, CIBER Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutricion (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through the Fondo de Investigacion para la Salud (FIS) - European Regional Development Fund PI13/00673 PI13/00492 PI13/00272 PI13/01123 PI13/00462 PI13/00233 PI13/02184 PI13/00728 PI13/01090 PI13/01056 PI14/01722 PI14/00636 PI14/00618 PI14/00696 PI14/01206 PI14/01919 PI14/00853 PI14/01374 PI14/00972 PI14/01471 PI16/00473, Especial Action Project entitled Implementacion y evaluacion de una intervencion intensiva sobre la actividad fisica Cohorte PREDIMED-Plus grant, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission 340918, Recercaixa grant 2013ACUP00194, Junta de Andalucia PI0458/2013 PS0358/2016 PI0137/2018, Generalitat Valenciana European Commission PROMETEO/2017/017, SEMERGEN grant, Fundacio la Marato de TV3 PI044003, Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 1717, CICYT grant by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades AGL2016-75329-R, European Commission CB06/03, "FOLIUM" program within the FUTURMed project entitled Talent for the medicine within the future from the Fundacio Institut d'Investigacio Sanitaria Illes Balears, ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) 2019/11324-8 2013/07914-8, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through the Fondo de Investigacion para la Salud (FIS) - European Regional Development Fund PI16/00501 PI16/00533 PI16/00381 PI16/00366 PI16/01522 PI16/01120 PI17/00764 PI17/01183 PI17/00855 PI17/01347 PI17/00525 PI17/01827 PI17/00532 PI17/00215 PI17/01441 PI17/00508 PI17/01732 PI17/00926 PI19/00781 PI14/00728 PI16/00662 PI16/01873 PI16/01094 FPU17/00513 CD17/00122