Vitamin A

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for good health. Your body needs this vitamin to develop and maintain healthy teeth, skin, skeletal and soft tissues, and mucous membranes. Vitamin A creates the pigments in the retina of the eye and is needed for good vision. It may also be critical to breastfeeding and reproduction. It’s recommended that males ages 14 and older take in 900 micrograms of vitamin A daily and that females age 14 and older get 700 micrograms a day.

You can obtain vitamin A by eating meat, kidneys, liver, codfish, halibut, fish oil, eggs, cheese, cream, while milk, and some fortified foods. However, most of these foods are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Your body can also produce vitamin A when you eat carotenoids, which are dark-colored dyes found in plant foods. One of the most common carotenoids is beta-carotene, which is found in apricots, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, pink grapefruit, pumpkin, spinach, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and most dark green, leafy vegetables. These sources of beta-crarotene do not have fat or cholesterol and are healthier options for ensuring that you take in adequate amounts of vitamin A.

The best way to get your daily requirement of vitamin A is to eat a balanced diet. If you are vitamin A deficient, you’re more susceptible to infectious diseases and vision problems. But if you consume too much vitamin A, you can also become sick.

Vitamin A poisoning occurs when an adult takes several hundred thousand international units of the vitamins. Large doses of vitamin A taken during pregnancy can cause birth defects, and babies and children can become sick after taking smaller doses of vitamin A or products that contain it, such as retinol. Eating too many foods that contain beta-carotene, such as carrots, can temporarily turn your skin yellow or orange.

Additional Facts

• Women who are pregnant or brestfeeding should check with their doctors about taking vitamin A.
• Children need different daily amounts of vitamin A based on their ages.
• Retinoids are derivatives of vitamin A and are used to treat skin disorders such as acne.

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