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Vitamin A

Vitamin A
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The Encyclopedia of Food is part of
the Precision Nutrition Network

All content © Precision Nutrition

At a Glance

Vitamin A is actually the collective name for a group of fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamin A has many essential functions, including helping with the formation of visual pigments (i.e. eyesight), assisting with immune function and wound healing, helping with embryonic development, and more. Vitamin A is perhaps best associated with red and orange vegetables like carrots and red peppers. But it can also be found in green leafy vegetables, eggs, and dairy products.

Overview

Vitamin A is the collective name for a group of fat-soluble vitamins. The most usable form is retinol. The carotenoids are precursors to vitamin A and are converted only when necessary.

Importance

Vitamin A has many functions in the body including:

  • Formation of visual pigments
  • Synthesis of proteins
  • Immune function and wound healing
  • Embryonic development
  • Stem cell differentiation
  • Red blood cell development.

Food Sources

Vitamin A can be found in several foods including:

  • Red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables (e.g. yams, pumpkin, squash, carrots, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, mangoes, melon)
  • Green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach, kale, mustard greens, beet greens, turnip greens, swiss chard, bok choy)
  • Eggs
  • Dairy products (e.g. cow’s milk, cheese, yogurt).

Deficiencies

Common symptoms and resulting conditions of vitamin A deficiency include:

  • Difficulty seeing in dim light
  • Rough/dry skin.

However, your individual response could be different. If you suspect a health problem or deficiency in certain nutrients, please see your primary health care provider (doctor, naturopath, etc). They can help unravel the complexity of your physiology.

Excess/Toxicity

Common symptoms of vitamin A excess/toxicity include:

  • Nausea
  • Headache
  • Fatigue
  • Loss of appetite
  • Dizziness
  • Dry skin
  • Birth defects when pregnant.

However, your individual response could be different. If you suspect a health problem or an excess of certain nutrients, please see your primary health care provider (doctor, naturopath, etc). They can help unravel the complexity of your physiology.

Note: Hypervitaminosis is caused by consuming excessive amounts of preformed vitamin A (retinal palmitate), not the plant carotenoids. Preformed vitamin A is absorbed rapidly but only cleared slowly from the body.

Recipe

For recipes rich in vitamin A, check out any of the Encyclopedia of Food entries for food items listed above.

Free Recipe Book

Precision Nutrition’s Encyclopedia of Food expands every single month as we highlight new foods and showcase beautiful food photography. If you’d like to stay up to date, simply click this link. From there, we’ll send you a FREE copy of our recipe book. We’ll also let you know when new and delicious foods are added to the site.

Click here for the free Encyclopedia of Food recipe book.

At a Glance

Vitamin A is actually the collective name for a group of fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamin A has many essential functions, including helping with the formation of visual pigments (i.e. eyesight), assisting with immune function and wound healing, helping with embryonic development, and more. Vitamin A is perhaps best associated with red and orange vegetables like carrots and red peppers. But it can also be found in green leafy vegetables, eggs, and dairy products.