Ensuring your diet contains a variety of foods from all food groups is the best way to ensure that you’re meeting your requirements, but it can be helpful to understand why this variety is so important.
To get us started, this week’s spotlight is on Vitamin A.
Vitamin A is actually the term used to refer to a group of retinoids including retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters.
Vitamin A plays a role in supporting immune function, vision, cellular communication, and reproduction. This means that intake of Vitamin A is important for healthy skin, good eyesight and staying healthy or recovering quickly from illness.
Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, which means that it needs dietary fats to aid in absorption in the body.
Food sources of Vitamin A include:
· Lean meats, liver/pate, oily fish and egg yolks
· Leafy green, orange, and yellow vegetables
· Fruit, including tomatoes
· Wholegrain foods like breads, cereals, polenta, cous cous
· Tofu, nuts and seeds
· Butter, whole milk, yoghurt, and cheese.
The recommended intake of Vitamin A for adults in Australia is 0.9mg for men and 0.7mg for women.
Most people would consume adequate Vitamin A through consumption of a well-balanced diet.
Supplementation is not needed unless advised by your Doctor.
If you would like to make a Dietetics appointment with Alice, you can call (03) 9534 0611.
