While health promotion literature and clinical guidelines suggest eating 5 or more portions of fruit and vegetables daily may have beneficial vascular effects, this specific hypothesis has rarely been addressed during randomised control trials in fteeliving volunteers. We conducted such a study among individuals with mild to moderate hypertension. During a common 4 week run-in period all participants limited their fruit and vegetable consumption (l portionfday) before randomisation to 1. 3 or 6 portions daily for the ne:x1. 8 weeks. Volunteers attended a research centre for vascular assessment immediately before and after the intervention phase. Forearm blood flow responses to an endothelium-dependent agonist (acetylcholine) were estimated by venous occlusion plethysmography while carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (CRPWV) and the aortic augmentation index were derived from applanation tonometry. Pre and post intervention circulating micronutrient concentrations were compared with contemporaneously recorded 4-day food records. A total of 117 volunteers (mean age ± standard deviation, 54.l±7.8 }years), completed the 12 week trial. At baseline a significant negative relationship was noted between maximum forearm blood flow response to intra-arterial acetylcholine and CRPWV (r= -O.225~ p=O.0l6). Changes in reported fruit and vegetable consmnption correlated significantly with altered circulating concentrations offJ-crypthoxanthin (F0.350, p