1 Unilever Brazil, Brazil; 2 Unilever Netherlands, Netherlands
Introduction: The intake of vegetables in Brazil and other South American countries remains below the amounts recommended by the WHO. Vitamin A deficiency is a wide-spread problem in Latin America, although data from national surveys are scarce. Brazil was ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) and PAHO as an area of severe subclinical vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin K1 is present in a wide variety of vegetables, however, there is lack of specific survey data on vitamin K1 intake. We tested the hypothesis that mayonnaise may enhance uptake of fat-soluble (pro)-vitamins from the vegetables in a salad. Methods: This was tested in a crossover study among nine Brazilian healthy subjects (28.7 ± 4.7 years old, BMI of 26.7 ± 2.1 kg/m2), who consumed a salad with a basic dressing (control; 1.6 g fat) or with the same basic dressing with added mayonnaise (test; 9.6 g fat), on two different occasions. Before and several hours after salad consumption, the levels of carotenoids and vitamin K1 were measured in chylomicron-rich fractions of blood. Retinyl palmitate was included as an indirect measurement of the relative bioavailability, i.e. an estimate of the bioconversion of α-carotene and β-carotene to vitamin A. Results: Based on this design, relative bioavailabilities for salad with test dressing versus salad with control dressing were calculated. Averages of n = 9 are given, with upper 95 % CI’s, lower 95 % CI’s and P-values between brackets: + 80 % for α-carotene (-3, +232; 0.0591), +91 % for β-carotene (+22, +200; 0.0118), +116 % for vitamin K1 (+5, +344; 0.0392) and +117 % for retinyl palmitate (+39, +242; 0.0039). Conclusions: These results show that by adding a mayonnaise to a salad the uptake of pro-vitamin A and vitamin K1 can be substantially increased. This fits WHO strategy to increase the intake of micronutrients from vegetables.