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31.08.2025

Why it's better to take astaxanthin supplements with meals

A few days ago, we wrote about a meta-study that showed which dosages of astaxanthin protect the skin against aging. Useful information, indeed. But this information becomes even more useful when you know that it's best to take astaxanthin supplements with food - especially fatty foods.

Bioavailability
The better-formulated carotenoid supplements - including astaxanthin - contain carotenoids dissolved in oil. The body can better absorb carotenoids in this form. [Pure and Applied Chemistry. 1994;66(5):1011-6.]

Moreover, we know that oil-based supplements, the best-studied beta-carotene, are absorbed three to four times better when people take them with a meal that also contains fat. To give you some figures, if you take a capsule with oil in which beta-carotene is dissolved on an empty stomach, the body absorbs 15 percent of the substance. If you take that capsule with a meal, that percentage increases to 47 percent.

The body absorbs carotenoids in the same way as cholesterol. It packages a carotenoid like astaxanthin in the intestines into small fat globules - micelles, as scientists prefer to call them. After absorption, the body transports the substance to the cells via cholesterol particles such as VLDL, LDL, and HDL. [J Nutr Biochem. 2000 Oct;11(10):482-90.]

Study
It stands to reason that the body also absorbs capsules containing oil dissolved in astaxanthin better during a meal. To be 100 percent certain of this, researchers at the Japanese Yamaha company conducted an experiment in which they gave half a dozen healthy subjects capsules containing a total of 48 milligrams of astaxanthin on an empty stomach, while another half a dozen subjects took the same dose with a normal breakfast.

Results
The amount of astaxanthin that the Japanese found in the blood of their subjects in the week after breakfast [AUC in the table below] was 2.4 times greater in the meal group.

Click on the table above for a larger version.

More coming soon.

Source:
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2009 Sep;73(9):1928-32.

More:
How to use astaxanthin to keep your skin young 31.08.2025
This combination of astaxanthin and collagen keeps your skin young 17.11.2020
Astaxanthin, an anti-wrinkle supplement 03.11.2020

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