Did your mam ever tell you to eat your carrots and you’d have amazing eyesight like a rabbit? Or maybe she promised you you’d have class night vision if you just take one more bite of your bloody carrots. So what’s the secret ingredient in carrots that we were promised would give us these incredible powers? Well my friends, that would be none other than Vitamin A!
Right so maybe your eyesight isn’t perfect, you might even need glasses and that’s probably not because you didn’t finish your veggies as a child but one of the many functions of vitamin A would be to produce a pigment called rhodopsin that does indeed help us to see in dim light. Maybe not exactly night vision goggles vibes but close enough!!
So What is Vitamin A?
Like all vitamins, vitamin A is an organic substance meaning it is made from plants or animals. It is one of the four fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) meaning that they are soluble or able to dissolve in fat and these vitamins in particular are stored in the liver and in fatty tissues. Due to this ability to be stored, it is possible, but very rare, to overdose on these vitamins so don’t down a bottle of vitamins please! Now, vitamin A can be split into two basic groups: the provitamin form, in particular a form known as beta carotene, and the preformed form, in particular retinol. Both are quite essential to the body and the main difference is that the proforms must be changed by the body in some way in order to be absorbed.
What’s So Important About Vitamin A Anyway?
We need vitamin A for lots of things in the body, it is not just used for our amazing seeing skillz. Like many vitamins, it is essential for a healthy immune system (f you corona) and it is also very important to maintain healthy, moisturised skin and mucus membranes. This is why retinol is often in anti-aging creams and just general skincare type products as a lack of vitamin A in the body would dry the skin out.
It is quite unlikely that you would be overly deficient in vitamin A to the point where you would be showing symptoms, as it is present in lllooootttttssss of different foods but a slight deficiency isn’t entirely unusual. The signs to look out for include dry skin and eyes, rashing, night blindness, acne, frequent throat and chest infection and possible infertility. Again, clinical vitamin A deficiency is very unusual in the developed world so it is definitely not something to be overly concerned about.
Where Is This Amazing Vitamin Found?
Beta carotene is what is known as a pigment, meaning it gives colour to it’s various sources. It is found in red, yellow and green fruits and veg. as well as seafood including salmon, trout, prawns and lobster. So if you see carotene added as an ingredient to a food, it is usually thrown in there to give an orange colour and provide a source of vitamin A. Meanwhile retinol is typically found in fattier foods such as dairy, egg yolk and fish liver oils. As you can see, as long as you have a varied diet with some amount of fruit, veg, dairy and/or fish, you’re likely receiving an adequate amount of vitamin A.
So How Much Vitamin A Do I Need In A Day?
According to the NHS, it is recommended that women aged 19-64 consume about 600µg a day and men in this age bracket consume 700µg a day. Here are some examples of sources of vitamin A to give you an idea of what you need to be consuming:
| Food: | Vitamin A Content: per 100g |
| Atlantic salmon | 16-19µg (retinol) |
| Carrots | 11764µg (carotene) |
| Red peppers | 580µg (carotene) |
| full fat milk | 38µg (total retinol) |
| eggs | 126µg (total retinol) |
| tomatoes | 349µg (carotene) |
The Big Vitamin A Problem
Unfortunately, vitamin A deficiency is a huge issue in many developing countries particularly in parts of South East Asia, The Middle East and Africa. This is due mainly to a lack of animal sources of vitamin A due to the fact that these can be expensive creating a reliance on provitamin A sources. If the crop fails due to flooding or drought, there is no vitamin A source. As well as this, if an individual is particularly malnourished, the body finds it difficult to convert provitamin A into a form necessary for absorption meaning that the vitamin A that is consumed isn’t used.
Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children worldwide with around 250,000 children going blind as a direct result each year. This blindness is entirely preventable and it is a tragedy that this still occurs around the world today. Vitamin A supplementation and food fortification with vitamin A could change countless lives. I will include links to one or two charities at the bottom of this post who give out these supplements to children in these affected countries. I also did an assignment on the issue of vitamin A deficiency for college so I’ll link that down below too for anyone who might be interested 🙂
Wow Vitamin A!
I think I have covered all the basics of this lovely vitamin in this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and maybe learned something new. Thank you for your support!
https://www.givewell.org/charities/helen-keller-international
NutritionWithMaidi 