Vitamin A Foods

Vitamin A Foods - Vitamin A is an essential vitamin, vitally important for our skin, eyes and re-growth of body tissue. It also acts to help our body fight infections, keeping us healthier as a whole. Although most of us want to stay healthy, we don’t always know the best ways to do it. By consuming Vitamin A Foods you can experience the health benefits from this great vitamin. It is important to know several things. First, what exactly vitamin A is, secondly, why it is so important for our health, and most important - what are the best natural food sources for vitamin A.

Vitamin A comes in two different forms, Retinol and Carotene. While Retinol is the most pure form of Vitamin A, the liver stores carotene that has been converted into Retinol. This vitamin is essential for so many reasons. There’s an old theory that carrots help you see better, and science is proving this is true because of the Vitamin A found in them. Vitamin A is recommended if you suffer from night blindness (meaning your eyes don’t adjust to lower light conditions). In addition to aiding vision, it is important for healthy skin (it’s believed to help acne), helps keep bones and teeth healthy, and even helps the mucous membranes. This is not all.

In addition to the outer skin benefits, Vitamin A also helps our internal skin surface, including our digestive tract and our respiratory system. Because of this, it’s believed that Vitamin A helps fight off infections. It is so effective that it has even been studied for it’s potential anti-viral qualities in treating HIV and AIDS patients. Although there are no conclusive studies, the fact that it has proven so effective in day to day use gave enough interest to conducting studies with it. This is something to consider.

Vitamin A can be found in many food sources, but if you want to make it simple to remember, the best sources are dark orange or yellow vegetables. The best ones are carrot juice, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and carrots. The color is very helpful in remembering, but it’s not a requirement for eating orange food to get your vitamin A. It is also found in turkey and beef in high content, and some in chicken and pork (although not as much), and other good sources are spinach (any way it’s prepared), other greens such as collard and turnip greens, and other vegetables. There are some fruits, including mangoes and apricots, that also provide a good helping of Vitamin A. Many of these foods have other health benefits as well, so they should be essentials in your pantry.

While everyone needs to get the daily recommended allowance of Vitamin A, pregnant and breast-feeding women need it more so than the average person. Some people recommend giving vitamin A drops to babies, but don’t do this without first consulting with your doctor. What ever you do, don’t exceed the recommended doses. If your kids won’t eat the natural Vitamin A foods, you can offer cod liver oil or halibut oil tablets to give them the benefits.

While most people will be able to consume enough Vitamin A in their normal diets, people who have poor diet, the elderly, those with respiratory problems and smokers should consider taking a supplemental for of Vitamin A or to increase the consumption of Vitamin A containing food.

Now that you are aware of the health benefits of this essential vitamin, make sure to stock your kitchen with healthy and delicious alternatives to keep you looking - and seeing - your best.

Much more than Vitamin A Foods is discussed back at the Natural Source Vitamins Homepage.