The importance of vitamin A

Posted by Charlotte Miller on

Vitamin A is the first vitamin in our vitamin series. You may have heard about vitamin A helping you to see in the dark? Well this is not unfounded! Vitamin A is essential for the function of our eyes, as well as immunity, reproduction and cell health. It helps to maintain the cells of our heart, liver, lungs and other organs. 

Vitamin A comes in many forms and our bodies are very clever making the specific type they require. Vitamin A from animal sources is in the form that our body requires and when we consume vitamin A from plants our bodies are clever enough to convert it to the form we need (how cool is that!) Most of the vitamin A in our body is stored in our liver and when we prepare food by chopping, cutting, cooking we make vitamin A more available and easily absorbed by our bodies. 

The good news is that in Australia vitamin A deficiency is rare because of the many places it can be found. According to the Australian Health Survey 2011-12 the most common ways we consume vitamin A are in the form of vegetables followed by milk. 

Good sources of vitamin A include: 

- Sweet potatoes with skin

- Beef liver

- Spinach 

- Carrots

- Mango 

- Capsicum 

- Ricotta 

A good excuse to go and get some orange fruit and vegetables on your fork! 

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