Supplementation of a diet low in carotenoids with tomato or carrot juice does not affect lipid peroxidation in plasma and feces of healthy men.

Antioxidant properties of carotenoids are thought to be at least partly responsible for the protective effects of fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids against colon cancer. There are large amounts of in vitro data supporting this hypothesis. But there is little known about the antioxidant effects of carotenoid-rich food in vivo particularly in the gastrointestinal tract. In a randomized, crossover trial, healthy men (n = 22) who were consuming a low-carotenoid diet drank 330 mL/d tomato juice or carrot juice for 2 wk. Antioxidant capacity was assessed by the "lag time" of ex vivo LDL oxidation induced by copper and lipid peroxidation as determined by measurements of malondialdehyde (MDA) in plasma and feces using HPLC with fluorescence detection. Although consumption of both carotenoid-rich juices for 2 wk increased the carotenoid level in plasma and feces (P < 0.001), the antioxidant capacity of LDL tended to be increased by only approximately 4.5% (P = 0.08), and lipid peroxidation in the men's plasma and feces was not affected. Thus, processes other than lipid peroxidation could be responsible for the preventive effects of tomatoes and carrots against colon cancer.