Foods That Help In Vitamin-A Deficiency:

By: on May 27th, 2017 in

FOODS THAT HELP IN VITAMIN-A DEFICIENCY:

Vitamin A was discovered in the early nineteenth century by Dr.E.McCollum, and in 1913 first vitamin A was isolated from butter and egg yolk. Vitamin A consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen. It is a yellow crystalline substance and occurs in many forms. It occurs in acid forms as retinoic acid containing the R-COOH group; in the alcohol form as retinal-containing R-OH group, in the aldehyde form as retinal-containing R-CHO group!(Note: R represents  the alkyl group).

Carotenes which are synthesized by plants are the ultimate source of all vitamin-A. Both men and animals convert to vitamin A, a considerable proportion of the carotene present in their food. Carotenes are dark-red crystalline compounds known as Provitamin-a or as precursors of vitamin A.

Vitamin A is required for proper growth and normal skeletal development of the body. It is also essential for healthy teeth structure and the proper activity of the sweat glands. Vitamin-A helps in the maintenance of a healthy, glowing and soft skin due to the better formation of the epithelial tissue. This vitamin also plays an important role in maintaining proper vision; lack of this vitamin leads to impaired vision in dim light(night blindness). Fetal tissues may also develop malformations if vitamin-A is not present.

How our eyes are affected due to Vitamin A deficiency?

Lack of vitamin A can cause a number of deficiency symptoms and defects. Initial symptoms are:

  • Itching
  • Burning and inflammation of the eyelids.

These are followed by impaired vision in dim light, a condition known as Nyctalopia.

When the deficiency of vitamin A is severe and prolonged, the cornea becomes dry and pigmented. This further leads to the cloudiness of the eyes, ulceration, and susceptibility to infections. This stage is known as keratomalacia. The final stage is the softening of the cornea leading to permanent deformities with subsequent involvement of the iris, lens and the whole eye. This eventually leads to total blindness and is called xerophthalmia.

What is the effect of Vitamin A deficiency on other organs?

In our skin:

Vitamin –A increases the susceptibility to infections of the eye, nasal passages, middle ear, mouth, lungs, respiratory tract etc,

Dry and scaly skin is an important symptom of a deficiency of this vitamin.

In our GI tract:

The above explanation about vitamin A explores us how important Vitamin-A is! and to avoid its deficiency we can follow and include some easy food habits, which are discussed below:

  • Vitamin A is one fat soluble vitamin. It is present in animal foods like butter, ghee, whole milk, curd, egg yolk, and liver. These can be included in your diet. these are also some common and easily available food that consists enough vitamin A to support our health.
  • The liver oils of certain fish like cod, halibut, shark, salmon etc are the richest source of vitamin A.
  • It is not present as vitamin A in vegetable foods but these substances contain carotenes which are converted to vitamin A in the body. Thus carotene is also known as provitamin A.

Leafy vegetables such as spinach, amaranth, coriander leaves, curry leaves, drumsticks, ripe fruits such as mangoes, color papaya and tomatoes are rich in carotene. Take plenty of these vegetables daily to avoid deficiencies.

  • Carrots and yellow pumpkins are also good sources. In general, the dark color of the green vegetables, the greater is the their carotene content!
  • Vitamin A is fat soluble vitamin, thus it can cause toxicity effects if it is taken as pill or supplementation. These vitamin then can not excrete out from our body. So be aware about taking oral supplements without consulting physicians. Taking chemical supplements for treating vitamin a is not ideal.
  • Try to include natural food sources of vitamin A in your daily diet and enjoy a healthy skin and advantages of vitamin A intake.As natural food has no risk of hypervitaminosis of vitamin A!