Nutrition 101: Vitamin A

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that is stored in the liver. Vitamin A comes mainly from animal food sources, but we can also make it from compounds called carotenoids found in plant foods. The most famous carotenoid is beta-carotene. Other names for Vitamin A include retinol, retinal, and retinoic acid.

Recommended Intakes

The Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for Vitamin A are shown below:

Age Group	Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) per Day	Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) per Day
Adults
19 to 50 years	900 mcg RAE male700 mcg RAE female	3,000 mcg RAE
51 to 70 years	900 mcg RAE male700 mcg RAE female	3,000 mcg RAE
71 years and up	900 mcg RAE male700 mcg RAE female	3,000 mcg RAE
Kids and Youth
1 to 3 years	300 mcg RAE	600 mcg RAE
4 to 8 years	400 mcg RAE	900 mcg RAE
9 to 13 years	600 mcg RAE	1,700 mcg RAE
14 to 18 years	900 mcg RAE male700 mcg RAE female	2,800 mcg RAE
Special Considerations
Pregnant or lactating women 14 to 18 years	750 mcg RAE pregnancy1,200 mcg RAE lactating	2,800 mcg RAE
Pregnant or lactating women 19 to 50 years	770 mcg RAE pregnancy1,300 mcg RAE lactating	3,000 mcg RAE

High intakes of preformed Vitamin A in pregnant women can cause birth defects. It is recommended that pregnant women not take Vitamin A supplements and limit their intake of liver.

What Does Vitamin A Do?

Vitamin A is important for maintaining normal vision, especially in low light, and for keeping our skin, eyes, teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, and immune system healthy. Vitamin A is also known as retinol because it produces the pigments in the retina of the eye. It also plays a role in reproduction and helps the heart, kidneys, lungs, and other organs to work properly.

Because Vitamin A is fat soluble, the body stores excess amounts, mainly in the liver. As a result, high levels can accumulate and cause vitamin A toxicity. Consuming large amounts of beta-carotene can cause pigments in the skin to turn yellow-orange, but this condition is harmless.

Top Vitamin A – Rich Foods

Two different types of Vitamin A are found in food. Preformed Vitamin A is found in animal products such as meat, fish, poultry, and dairy foods. Pro-vitamin A is found in plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables. The most common type of Pro-vitamin A is beta-carotene. Health Canada recommends eating one dark green and one orange vegetable or fruit each day.

Food	Vitamin A per serving
Animal sources (Vitamin A)
Beef liver, 3 oz	6582 mcg RAE
Eel, baked, 2.5 oz	853 mcg RAE
Herring, pickled,  3 oz	219 mcg RAE
Cheese, goat, hard, 1.5 oz	243 mcg RAE
Milk, skim, 1%, 2%, 1 cup	149 mcg RAE
Salmon, 2.5 oz	112 mcg RAE
Egg, 1 large	70 mcg RAE
Plant sources (carotenoids)
Sweet potato, baked in skin, 1 medium	1096 mcg RAE
Pumpkin, canned, ½ cup	1007 mcg RAE
Squash, butternut, cooked, ½ cup	572 mcg RAE
Spinach, cooked, ½ cup	472 mcg RAE
Carrots, raw, ½ cup	459 mcg RAE
Kale, raw, chopped, 1 cup	335 mcg RAE
Apricots, dried, 1/4 cup	191 mcg RAE
Cantaloupe, raw, ½ cup	135 mcg RAE

Nutrition Facts Label and the % Daily Value

In the United States: The daily value (DV) for Vitamin A is 1500 RAE. On food labels, Vitamin A is measured in International Units (IU), not mcg RAE. Converting between IU and mcg RAE is not straightforward. A varied diet with 900 mcg RAE of Vitamin A, for example, provides between 3,000 and 36,000 IU of Vitamin A depending on the foods consumed. The number you see on the Nutrition Facts label is a percentage calculated by dividing the amount of Vitamin A in one serving of the food by the DV. So, for example, a ½ cup serving of raw carrots that contains 459 mcg RAE of Vitamin A would have 30% of the DV for Vitamin A.

In Canada: The daily value for Vitamin A is 1000 RAE, which is slightly higher than the DRI level for adults. Using the same example, a ½ cup serving of raw carrots that contains 459 mcg RAE of Vitamin A would have 46% of the DV for Vitamin A.

Nutrient Interactions

Zinc: Zinc is necessary for the absorption and utilization of Vitamin A