10 lines about vitamin A and its importance
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NUTRITION
6 Health Benefits of Vitamin A, Backed by Science
Written by Helen West, RD on August 23, 2018
Vitamin A is the generic term for a group of fat-soluble compounds highly important for human health.
They’re essential for many processes in your body, including maintaining healthy vision, ensuring the normal function of your immune system and organs and aiding the proper growth and development of babies in the womb.
It’s recommended that men get 900 mcg, women 700 mcg and children and adolescents 300–600 mcg of vitamin A per day (1Trusted Source).
Vitamin A compounds are found in both animal and plant foods and come in two different forms: preformed vitamin A and provitamin A.
Preformed vitamin A is known as the active form of the vitamin, which your body can use just as it is. It’s found in animal products including meat, chicken, fish and dairy and includes the compounds retinol, retinal and retinoic acid.
Provitamin A carotenoids — alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin — are the inactive form of the vitamin found in plants.
These compounds are converted to the active form in your body. For example, beta-carotene is converted to retinol (an active form of vitamin A) in your small intestine (2Trusted Source).