This blog post will walk you through: vitamin a foods vegetarian. Don’t worry, we’ve got all the answers about this subject.
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Our bodies turn carotenoids from plant foods into vitamin A. This vitamin is required for growth and development, eye health and the normal functioning of our immune systems.
Sources Of Vitamin A
There are two main sources of vitamin A: animal sources and plant sources.
In animal sources, vitamin A is found as retinol, the ‘active’ form of vitamin A. Liver, including fish liver, is a very good source. Other animal sources are egg yolk (not the white) and dairy products such as milk (including human breast milk), cheese and butter. Meat, from the animal’s muscles, is not a good source.
Plant sources contain vitamin A in the form of carotenoids which have to be converted during digestion into retinol before the body can use it. Plant sources of vitamin A include: mangos, papaya, many of the squashes, carrots, sweet potatoes and maize (but not the white varieties). Other good sources of vitamin A are red palm oil and biruti palm oil.
(Note: if these oils are boiled to remove their colour the vitamin A is destroyed.). Some fruits and vegetables are easier to digest than others, and it has been shown that dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach or amaranth are harder to digest. Mashing these vegetables up after cooking makes them easier to digest.
Ultraviolet light can also reduce the vitamin A content of food, so drying of fruits such as mangos should not be done in direct sunlight (see page 73). Diets that rely heavily on local carbohydrates, such as rice, fufu, ugali, cassava, millet and sorghum, are very low in vitamin A, unless vitamin A-rich foods are adde.
20 Foods High In Vitamin A
vitamin that plays an essential role in maintaining vision, body growth, immune function and reproductive health.
Getting adequate amounts of vitamin A from your diet should prevent the symptoms of deficiency, which include hair loss, skin problems, dry eyes, night blindness and increased susceptibility to infections. In contrast, most people in developed countries get enough vitamin A from their diet. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) is 900 mcg for men, 700 mcg for women and 300–600 mcg for children and adolescents.
The RDA provides enough vitamin A for the vast majority of people.
About The Types Of Vitamin A And Retinol Equivalents
High vitamin A foods include sweet potatoes, carrots, fish (tuna), winter squashes, dark leafy greens, cantaloupe, lettuce, bell peppers, pink grapefruit, and broccoli. Below is a list high vitamin A foods, click here for over 200 foods high in vitamin A, sortable by common serving size, 200 calorie serving size, or 100 gram serving siz.