Vitamin A

Vitamins are present in minute quantities in food. This does not mean we need vitamin pills to meet our needs! We can meet our requirements for vitamins quite easily by consuming the right types of foods. Some of the vitamins are soluble in water while others are soluble in fat. They are hence classified into two categories:

Water-soluble vitamins – Vitamins B,C are known as water-soluble vitamins
Fat-soluble vitamins – Vitamins A, D, E and K are known as the fat-soluble vitamins.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A or Retinol is found only in the foods of animal origin.
Animal foods like – milk, butter, ghee, egg, fish and liver are rich sources of vitamin A.
Plant food do not contain Retinol.
Most of the yellow and orange colour of vegetables and fruits is due to these carotenoid pigments. Ripe fruits such as mango, papaya and yellow,orange vegetables like carrot and pumpkin are rich in beta carotene.
Green leafy vegetables also contain carotenoid pigments but is masked due to the presence of another pigment called chlorophyll which is green in colour.
Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, mustard leaves and fenugreek leaves are very rich sources of beta carotene.

Functions:

What does vitamin A do in the body?

This remarkable substance has, in fact, three important functions :
1) Maintaining normal vision: Vitamin A plays an important role in maintaining normal vision.
2) Supporting growth: Vitamin A is essential for the growth of the skeleton and soft tissues.
3) Protecting against disease: Vitamin A plays an important role in keeping epithelial tissues of skin moist and healthy.

With this marks the end of short post on Vitamin A, and also marks the last post of this year 2021 –

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022, FROM – ANUSHA..