Department of Nutrition, Food Sciences, and Gastronomy, School of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Biomedical Research Networking Centres in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019 Jul;72(Suppl 1):18-25. doi: 10.1038/s41430-018-0305-9.
Carotenoids are naturally occurring pigments of autotroph organisms that have been related to many health benefits and this is not only because some of them are precursors of vitamin A. Individual or whole carotenoid consumption has been associated with a lower risk of developing cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases among others. However, the blood levels of carotenoids vary largely from person to person due to different factors. Diet is the most important one because of the dietary patterns that different populations follow, the time of the year of consumption or the personal preferences. Nevertheless, the intrinsic host factors such as the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion genetic polymorphisms, the volume of distribution and the person's microbiota and others such as carotenoid interactions are also inducing this so called inter-individual variability. Besides, culinary methods and processing produce changes in the foods that directly affect carotenoid content and hence their blood profile. Different types of studies have been performed to understand the between-subject variation of the carotenoid profile in human plasma. This research is focused on this matter as levels of carotenoids in human plasma could be useful for the prediction of some diseases. The Mediterranean diet is probably the most carotenoid rich diet stemming from its high proportion of fruits and vegetables. Its differences with other diets and the effect on the carotenoid blood profile of the consumers are currently a very interesting topic of study.
类胡萝卜素是自养生物中天然存在的色素，与许多健康益处有关，这不仅是因为它们中的一些是维生素 A 的前体。单独或整体类胡萝卜素的摄入与降低患癌症、心血管和代谢疾病等疾病的风险有关。然而，由于不同的因素，个体之间的血液类胡萝卜素水平差异很大。饮食是最重要的因素，因为不同人群的饮食模式、消费的季节时间或个人喜好不同。然而，内在的宿主因素，如吸收、分布、代谢和排泄的遗传多态性、分布体积以及个体的微生物群和其他如类胡萝卜素相互作用，也会导致这种所谓的个体间变异性。此外，烹饪方法和加工会改变食物，直接影响类胡萝卜素的含量，从而影响其血液特征。已经进行了不同类型的研究来了解人类血浆中类胡萝卜素谱的个体间差异。这项研究专注于这个问题，因为人类血浆中的类胡萝卜素水平可能有助于预测某些疾病。地中海饮食可能是最富含类胡萝卜素的饮食，因为它含有大量的水果和蔬菜。它与其他饮食的区别以及对消费者血液类胡萝卜素特征的影响，目前是一个非常有趣的研究课题。
