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!
