Eat Your Veggie Soup

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Stressed Out? Have Some Cold Vegetable Soup ARS News Service, Agricultural Research Service, USDA November 3, 2004Volunteers who ate vegetables consistently for two weeks as part of anutrition study showed a significant increase in blood levels ofvitamin C and a decrease in key stress molecules associated withhealth impairment. The findings from this study funded in part by theAgricultural Research Service appear in today's issue of the Journalof Nutrition. 2004 The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 134:3021-3025, November 2004Human Nutrition and MetabolismConsumption of High-Pressurized Vegetable Soup Increases Plasma Vitamin C and Decreases Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Healthy Humans1 Concepción Sánchez-Moreno*,, M. Pilar Cano, Begoña de Ancos, Lucía Plaza, Begoña Olmedilla**, Granado** and Martín*,2 * Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory, Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture-Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA; Department of Plant Foods Science and Technology, Instituto del Frío-CSIC, Madrid, Spain; and ** Unit of Vitamins, Section of Nutrition, Clínica Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain 2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: antonio.martin@.... Current evidence supports a significant association between fruit and vegetable intake and health. In this study, we assessed the effect of consuming a vegetable-soup "gazpacho" on vitamin C and biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation in a healthy human population. We also examined the association between vitamin C and F2-isoprostanes (8-epiPGF2), uric acid (UA), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and the cytokines, tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), and IL-6. Gazpacho is a Mediterranean dish defined as a ready-to-use vegetable soup, containing 80% crude vegetables rich in vitamin C. Subjects (6 men, 6 women) enrolled in this study consumed 500 mL/d of gazpacho corresponding to an intake of 72 mg of vitamin C. On d 1, subjects consumed the gazpacho in one dose; from d 2 until the end of the study, d 14, 250 mL was consumed in the morning and 250 mL in the afternoon. Blood was collected before drinking the soup (baseline) and on d 7 and 14. Baseline plasma vitamin C concentrations did not differ between men and women (P = 0.060). Compared with baseline, the vitamin C concentration was significantly higher on d 7 and 14 of the intervention in both men and women (P < 0.05). Baseline plasma levels of UA and F2-isoprostanes were higher (P 0.002) in men than in women. The F2-isoprostanes decreased on d 14 in men and women (P 0.041), and UA decreased in men (P = 0.028). The concentrations of vitamin C and 8-epiPGF2 were inversely correlated (r = –0.585, P = 0.0002). Plasma PGE2 and MCP-1 concentrations decreased in men and women (P 0.05) on d 14, but those of TNF-, IL-1ß, and IL-6 did not change. Consumption of the vegetable soup decreases oxidative stress and biomarkers of inflammation, which indicates that the protective effect of vegetables may extend beyond their antioxidant capacity.