Picking up from our previous post on Vitamins.... today i am going to give you a list of Natural sources for Vitamin A, a very important vitamin for our body...
Vitamin A can be found from various vegetables, fruits and meat. It is a norm that when we talk about Vitamin A, the 1st thing that comes to our mind are CARROTS... Well, there's lots more to food with Vitamin A than just carrots..Below is a list of food sources rich in Vitamin A:
Fruits & Vegetables
• Apples
• Apricots
• Asparagus
• Basil
• Beetroot
• Bell peppers
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Cantaloupe
• Carrots
• Cayenne pepper
• Chile pepper
• Cucumber
• Collard greens
• Grapefruit
• Green beans
• Guava
• Kale
• Lemons
• Lettuce
• Mangoes
• Oatmeal
• Oregano
• Papaya
• Parsley
• Peaches
• Peas
• Plum
• Prunes
• Red peppers
• Spinach
• Squash
• Sweet potatoes
• Sweet red peppers
• Tomato
• Turnip
• Watercress
• Watermelon
Animals:
• Beef
• Cod fish
• Duck
• Egg
• Fish oils
• Lamb
• Milk
• Pork
• Turkey
• Veal
But now the question is how much of these do we need to consume? Ok according to FDA standards, the daily consumption of Vitamin A should be no more than 5000 IU (International Units).
Next question is, can we get an overdose by consuming Vitamin A rich food? The answer is YES (High Probability) for kids under the age of 6 and YES (lower probability) for everyone else... WHY?? Well, as we all know (if you would have read my previous post on Vit A) Vitamin is a fat soluble Vitamin. This means that our body can store these vitamins in our liver and use it when necessary. Kids under the age of 6 have livers that are not 100% developed plus only require a very small amount of Vit A. Therefore, feeding them with a lot Vit A rich food can lead to overdose.
In most kids, overdose (Carotenemia - Orange red coloured skin on the palm and sole of the feet) comes due to excessive consumption of carrots (one of the highest Vit A content). Parents have the misconception that since carrots are good for health, they stuff their kids with carrots pretty much every meal. To those of you who are parents, PLEASE do not make that mistake. Too much of anything turns out to be bad for health. It's good to include carrots or equivalent in your childs diet but 1 meal a day is more than sufficient. The most important thing is to have a good balance of everything.
Anyone above the age of 6 more often than not never get overdosed from food sources because they require more Vit A but because of the way our food is prepared (frying, over-cooking etc) and stored it loses some of its Vit A content. So, generally the amount of food we consume either gives us just the right amount or lesser than what we need. This is why, in most cases a person is diagnosed with some form of Vit A deficiency after the age of 6.
When it comes to food preparation, it is important to consume vegetables half cooked or preferably raw and meat steamed, baked, grilled etc. It helps retain the Vit A content.
But lets face facts... In the real world, it is difficult to prepare food all the time the perfect way. The least that we can do is to make sure we have at least 1 Vit A rich component every meal....
If with that you still have a Vit A deficiency, you can always visit any pharmacy and get Vit A supplements. Remember, please do consult your doctor before taking Vitamin A supplements as supplements can easily give anyone an overdose if not taken according to our body need.
Just a few common overdose symptoms:
- Nausea, loss of appetite and headache are the most commonly observed disorders which occur as a result of vitamin A overdose.
- Along with that hair loss and peeling of the skin will also be experienced by some people.
- Enlargement of the spleen and the liver and menstrual irregularity in females is also observed.
- The people having excess amount of vitamin A might get tired easily and they might also tend to feel weak at times.
- The very common symptom which is observed during the initial stages of vitamin A overdose is dry lips
- In case of chronic vitamin A overdose, notable symptoms include brittle nails, conjunctivitis, abnormal reddening of skin, liver cirrhosis, edema and peripheral neuritis (nerve inflammation)
That's all for now guys... till our next post.. adios...
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