Green and yellow vegetables can maintain body stores of vitamin A in Chinese children

• Published in: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 70; no. 6; pp. 1069 - 1076
• Main Authors: GUANGWEN TANG, GU, X.-F, HU, S.-M, XU, Q.-M, JIAN QIN, DOLNIKOWSKI, G. G, FJELD, C. R, XIANG GAO, RUSSELL, R. M, YIN, S.-A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD American Society for Clinical Nutrition 01.12.1999; American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Carotenoids - administration & dosage; Carotenoids - blood; Child; Child, Preschool; China; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Diet; Female; Humans; Kindergarten; Male; Medical sciences; Metabolic diseases; Nutrition; Other nutritional diseases (malnutrition, nutritional and vitamin deficiencies...); Students; Tropical medicine; Vegetables; Vitamin A - blood; Vitamin A Deficiency - prevention & control; Vitamins; Asia; China; Human; Nutrition disorder; Vitamin; Vitamin deficiency; Supplemented diet; Feeding; Retinol; School age; Plant origin; Carotenoid; Child; Nutritional status; Vegetable; Metabolic storage
• ISSN: 0002-9165; 1938-3207
• DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/70.6.1069

Vitamin A activity of plant provitamin A carotenoids is uncertain. The objective was to determine whether plant carotenoids can sustain or improve vitamin A nutrition during the fall season in kindergarten children in the Shandong province of China. The serum vitamin A concentration of 39% of the children was <1.05 micromol/L and of 61% of the children was > or = 1.05 micromol/L. For 5 d/wk for 10 wk, 22 children were provided approximately 238 g green-yellow vegetables/d and 34 g light-colored vegetables/d. Nineteen children maintained their customary dietary intake, which included 56 g green-yellow vegetables/d and 224 g light-colored vegetables/d. Octadeuterated and tetradeuterated vitamin A were given before and after the interventions, respectively, and their enrichments in the plasma were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Serum retinol and carotenoid concentrations were measured by HPLC. Carotenoid nutrition improved after consumption of green-yellow vegetables. Serum concentrations of retinol were sustained in the group fed green-yellow vegetables but decreased in the group fed light-colored vegetables (P < 0.01). The isotope-dilution tests confirmed that total-body vitamin A stores were sustained in the group fed green-yellow vegetables, but decreased 27 micromol (7700 microg retinol) per child, on average, in the group fed light-colored vegetables (P < 0.06). Green-yellow vegetables can provide adequate vitamin A nutrition in the diet of kindergarten children and protect them from becoming vitamin A deficient during seasons when the provitamin A food source is limited.