It is well known that carotenoids, as antioxidants, are efficient scavengers of radicals, while malonyldialdehyde (MDA), a marker of lipid peroxidation, is caused by excessive oxidative stress. The recommended food score (RFS) is the simple questionnaire assessing overall diet quality, consisting of food items bearing high amounts of antioxidant nutrients. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the associations of an individual oxidative stress status and overall diet quality in apparently healthy subjects. The data were collected from Korean adults aged above 18 years who underwent an annual health examination at the Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center. A total of 916 subjects (men, n=368; women, n=407) were classified into four groups according to the number of presence of metabolic risk factors (high waist circumference, high triglyceride level, high blood glucose, low HDL cholesterol, and high blood pressure). The four groups were distributed as follows: healthy subjects (40%), subjects with one metabolic risk factor (32%), subjects with two factors (18%), and subjects with more than three factors (10%). A high-performance liquid chromatography was used for the determination of carotenoid concentrations in plasma and MDA levels in biofluids (plasma, red blood cells (RBC), and urine). In the healthy group without any risk factors, RFS showed significant positive association with total carotenoids, xanthophylls, carotenes, and all individual carotenoids. Moreover, plasma carotenoids described negative correlation to plasma MDA. No consistent trends between RFS and plasma carotenoids are seen for subjects who have metabolic risk factors. On the other hand, the association between plasma carotenoids and RBC MDA was consistent in all groups, except subjects who have two risk factors. Therefore, metabolic risk factors may contribute to individual oxidative stress status.