Frequent consumption of milk, yogurt, cold breakfast cereals, peppers, and cruciferous vegetables and intakes of dietary folate and riboflavin but not vitamins B-12 and B-6 are inversely associated with serum total homocysteine concentrations in the US population

Background: Elevated circulating total homocysteine (tHcy) is an independent risk factor for vascular diseases. Objective: We investigated the relation between dietary intakes and serum tHcy in the US population. Design: Data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) wereused to investigate the associations between food consumption frequency and dietary B vitamin intakes and serum tHcy in 5996 persons. Results: Multivariate-adjusted tHcy concentrations were approximate to 15.2% higher in subjects who never consumed milk than in those who consumed milk >30 times/mo, approximate to6.4% higher in subjects who never consumed yogurt than in those who consumed yogurt >15 times/ mo, approximate to7.4% higher in subjects who never consumed cold breakfast cereals than in those who consumed cold breakfast cereals >30 times/mo, approximate to6.3% higher in subjects who never consumed peppers (includes red, yellow, green, and hot chili peppers) than in those who consumed peppers >30 times/mo, and approximate to16.5% higher in subjects who never consumed cruciferous vegetables than in those who consumed cruciferous vegetables >30 times/mo. Consumption of citrus fruit and juices, cheese, meats, coffee, or tea had no significant association with tHcy. Folate (beta = -0.0017, P for trend = 0.004) and riboflavin (beta = -0.2851, P for trend = 0.027), but not vitamin B-6 (beta = 0.0505, P for trend = 0.70) and cobalamin (beta = -0.0035, P for trend = 0.58), were inversely related to serum tHcy after adjustment for confounders. Conclusions: In this population-based study, milk, yogurt, cold breakfast cereals, peppers, and cruciferous vegetables were inversely related to serum tHcy. This association may be explained by increased intakes of folate and riboflavin.