LAUSR

Objectives Skin carotenoid status assessed by Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) has emerged as a promising new biomarker of vegetable intake. As a result, only few studies have compared the relationship between free living vegetable and fruit intake and skin carotenoids in youth populations. The overall objective is toassess how vegetable intake correlates with skin carotenoids in primarily, Hispanic children. Methods Baseline data from TX Sprouts, a 1-year school-based gardening, cooking, and nutrition randomized controlled trial were used, which included 465 low-income 3rd-5thgrade students from nine schools in central Texas. The following data were collected: demographics via questionnaires, dietary intake viatwo 24-hour dietary recalls collected via telephone, and skin carotenoid status assessed via RRS. Partial correlations were run between vegetable servings per day and changes in vegetable servings per day, controlling for school site, ethnicity/race, sex, age, ethnicity, and energy intake. Results Students were 45% male and 70% Hispanic with a mean age of 9.4 ± 0.9 years. Intake of dark green/orange/yellow vegetables (servings/day) was positively correlated with RRS scores (r = 0.12; P = 0.012). Total vegetable intake or fruit intake was not correlated to RRS scores. Conclusions The correlation was significant, albeit small, between dark green, yellow, red, and orange vegetable intakes and RRS scores. This is one of the first free-living studies in youth to show that nutrient rich vegetable intake is positively linked to skin carotenoids. These results highlight that the RRS can provide a non-invasive and objective measure of vegetable intake that can be used in school settings with children. Funding Sources This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health - National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grant number R01HL123865).