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The intake of carotenoids in Denmark
Author(s) -
Leth Torben,
Jakobsen Jette,
Andersen Niels Lyhne
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
european journal of lipid science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1438-9312
pISSN - 1438-7697
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1438-9312(200002)102:2<128::aid-ejlt128>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - carotenoid , lycopene , lutein , food science , chemistry , population , zoology , biology , medicine , environmental health
To estimate the intake of carotenoids in the Danish population Danish fruits and vegetables were screened with an HPLC method consisting of extraction with ethanol:tetrahydrofuran, separation by reversed phase HPLC with the mobile phase acetonitril:methanol:dichlormethan, triethylamin, BHT and detection at 450 nm. Food intakes were estimated by the national dietary surveys (1995) from 7 days' food registration (n = 1837 adults), which allows the whole diet to be described by the mean intake and intake distribution of 207 raw or semiprepared foods. By multiplication with the mean content in the foods the mean intake and intake distribution of the carotenoids were calculated. Carrots and tomatoes have both high contents of carotenoids (8,450 μg/100 g α‐ + β‐carotene and 4,790 μg/100 g lycopene, respectively) and high intakes (19 and 15 g/day, respectively) and were responsible for 47% and 32%, respectively, of the mean intake of carotenoids of 4.8 mg/day. A median value of 4.1 mg/day was found indicating skewed intake distributions. The difference between men and women was 0.4 mg/day (p < 0.0065). Only four carotenoids, α‐carotene, β‐carotene, lutein and lycopene, contributed significantly to the intake. Women had a 6 g/day higher intake of carrots than men (p < 0.0001), which explains the 0.4 mg/day difference in the intake between men and women, and the 25th percentile was well over zero (5.0 g/day for men and 5.9 g/day for women) indicating that almost everybody consumed at least some carrots.