While most people don’t need to specifically worry about whether or not they’re getting enough Vitamin A, it’s still beneficial to learn what foods have which nutrients. It can also be helpful to see some “staple” foods that seem to have every nutrient in them that you should be eating all the time, and other foods you can use to shake up your diet, while maintaining your health.
Speaking of which, you may know that Vitamin A is important for you to eat, but do you know why? (Other than “people say so”)
Vitamin A is important to eat because it helps maintain:
- Vision
- Body Growth
- Immune Function
- Reproductive Health
There’s actually two kinds of Vitamin A: Vitamin A1 (also called retinol) is the kind only found in animal products, whereas Provitamin A is the kind found in plant-based foods.
And while getting enough Vitamin A is important for your overall health (my research found “males” need 900 micrograms, whereas “females” need 700 micrograms), I also came across an article that said getting too much Vitamin A (200,000mcg) could lead to some not-so-fun side effects:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Vertigo
- Blurry Vision
The article I found this information from was unclear on whether or not they were speaking about the food-sourced Vitamin A or supplements, but I figured it was good information to include, anyway.
Now you know how much you need (and how much to avoid), time to learn the best plant-based sources of Vitamin A:
Starting in the top left-hand corner, moving clockwise:
- Sweet Potato, Baked 1,920 mcg
- Carrots, Cooked 1,280 mcg
- Butternut Squash, Baked 1,140 mcg
- Spinach, Cooked 943 mcg
- Collard Greens, Cooked 722 mcg
- Turnip Greens, Cooked 549 mcg
- Swiss Chard, Cooked 536 mcg
- Pumpkin Pie (1 “piece”) 488 mcg
- Cantaloupe 270 mcg
- Red Bell Pepper, Raw (1 Large) 257 mcg
- Romaine Lettuce, Raw 205 mcg
- Grapefruit (1 full) 178 mcg (89 mcg per half)
- Kale, Cooked 172 mcg
- Broccoli 120 mcg
- Mango 89 mcg
- Papaya 78 mcg
- Apricot (2 Apricots) 67 mcg
- Black Eyed Peas, Boiled 66 mcg
- Watermelon 43 mcg
- Tomato Juice (3/4C) 42 mcg
- Tangerine (1 full) 37 mcg
Like this article? Check out the rest of my Nutrient Collage series here!