Vitamin A

Your body needs a long list of minerals and vitamins to build a strong immune system. There are many vitamins which your body will need each day where among them is Vitamin A. It is a commonly known fact that Vitamin A is a crucial mineral that your body needs to enhance your vision health.Besides that, it helps to build your immune system and joints for better movement.

Source
One of the most important factors about Vitamin A is that your body cannot produce Vitamin A itself. In other words, the best source of Vitamin A is from your diet. It must be noted that you can get Vitamin A from supplements but obtaining it from food would be the ideal way. The most common source of Vitamin A is from most vegetables and fruits while carrots are known to provide high volumes of this vitamin. For those who like meat, you can get a lot of Vitamin A from liver.

Top Natural Foods rich with Vitamin A
As mentioned, the most common perception of natural foods rich with Vitamin A are sweet potatoes and carrots. This is very true because sweet potatoes have about 100 grams of Vitamin A in a cup of 200grams while carrots give you 100grams of Vitamin A in every 156grams-cup. However, there are other rich sources as well if you do not like carrots or sweet potatoes too much. If you take cooked kale, frozen spinach, turnip greens Swiss chard and Pak Choi, these foods will supply your body with sufficient levels of this vitamin as well. Another good source of Vitamin A are dried apricots where you get about 100grams of Vitamin A in a cup of 120 grams of this fruit.

What is it used for?
The most significant contribution of Vitamin A is that it helps in enhancing your sight and eye-health. Apart from that, Vitamin A helps to boost your immune system, ensuring that you do not fall sick too easily. This Vitamin is very important for pregnant women as it is needed by a growing embryo to grow.

Deficiency of Vitamin A and the Symptoms
A person who is low on Vitamin A could experience a lot of problems. As Vitamin A is used to enhance vision, lack of it will cause losing of sight or it could deteriorate. Vitamin A deficiency could cause your immune system to suffer which could lead to all types of sickens as your body becomes more vulnerable to attacks. Another problem that you might experience is memory loss if your body is severely in need of Vitamin A. For the pregnant woman, too little or too much Vitamin A could cause birth defects to the child.

If you have impaired dark adaption of the eyes known to cause night blindness, chances are you are lacking in this vitamin. One common symptom of Vitamin A deficiency is known as keratinization. When this happens to the eyes, it will lead to xerophthalmia where the conjunctivae and corneas experience drying and thickening. If this condition is not treated, it could lead to very serious problems like blindness. Meanwhile, the keratinization of the skin can occur as well which will lead to dry skin while if it occurs to the respiratory system, you could suffer asthma.

Recommended dosage for Vitamin A
Intake of Vitamin A is measured through the IU (international unit) where adult men should take at least 3,000 IU of Vitamin A each day while women should have 2,310 IU per day.

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