*3.1. Participant Characteristics*

At screening, the participants' mean ± SD age was 24 ± 5 years, weight was 78 ± 10 kg, height was 180 ± 8 cm, and BMI was 24 ± 2 kg/m<sup>2</sup> . The participants selected for this study had "healthy" (*i.e.*, >50 μmol/L) fasting plasma ascorbate concentrations, their mean ± SD at screening being 67 ± 17 μmol/L (*n* = 9). This was to avoid the potentially confounding effects of preferential tissue uptake in individuals with suboptimal ascorbate status at baseline, which could affect the comparative ascorbate levels observed in plasma and urine. Urinary ascorbate levels were detectible in the subjects at baseline, further indicating that plasma ascorbate levels were at or above the renal threshold.

**Figure 2.** Change in plasma ascorbate uptake following ingestion of 200 mg vitamin C (●) or 1.5 Sungold kiwifruit (○). Data represent mean ± SEM (*n* = 9). Baseline plasma ascorbate concentrations were 61 ± 6 μmol/L and 66 ± 6 μmol/L for the vitamin C and kiwifruit groups, respectively. Two way analysis of variance with Fisher pairwise multiple comparison procedure indicated a significant increase in plasma ascorbate from 0.5 h post intervention (*P* = 0.008), but no significant difference between the two interventions (*P* = 0.645).
