[Investigation needs on carotenoids in the republic of Argentina]

There are no national dietary surveys regarding nutrient intake of Argentine population. On the other hand, nutrient content of foods in Argentina, as in other Latin American countries, is unknown because there are no data on food composition. Therefore, nutrient intakes must be calculated using foreign composition tables. In relation to vitamin A nutritional status, high prevalence of low vitamin A intake and low plasma retinol levels have been found in the eighties in several groups of university students. In this report, results of a 7-day dietary survey of students attending the course of Nutrition in the Universities of Buenos Aires, Luján and Tucumán are presented. Information was processed in a PC Computer (VAN Program, Lujan University, Argentina) to obtain the mean daily intake of carotenes with and without provitamin A activity, according to the German Food Composition Tables. The results showed that provitamin A carotenes provided between 40 and 82% of the vitamin A recommended allowances and that about 20% of the population had total carotene intake lower than 4 mg/day. These results are in agreement with other dietary surveys carried out in students in previous years and are a consequence of some characteristic feeding habits of the Argentine population. In order to obtain more reasonable results regarding actual intakes in our population, study of the composition of national foods would be imperative.