Too much vitamin A?

little_miss_panda

I've found that since starting primal, my vitamin A levels are always way over. I don't worry about too much vitamin C, and I no longer take a multivitamin every day, because I am getting so many more nutrients from my diet. But still it seems that I am eating well over the recommended vitamin A.

Is this a problem? Does anyone else have an issue with their diet having too many nutrients in it!

spirit80

The whole idea is to eat food with Nutrients! Why would you not! Think about it!

GalaxyDuck

Check out the documentary "Food Matters". There's a guy on there that talks a great deal about vitamins, and how high dosages are better, but people are scared of them because of the way the media portrays vitamin supplements (i.e. don't take too many vitamins...you might get HEALTHY and not need prescription drugs anymore ).


How much are you getting a day? As long as you're getting them from whole, real foods I don't think it would be a problem.

little_miss_panda

I am usually at 150-200% of RDA on vit a and C because I eat such a lot of veg and a decent amount of fruit too. I know you pee out an excess of most vitamins, but I had heard before that too much vit A is an issue. But yeah, it's coming from food, I used to do vitamin supplements but I stopped, since I am getting much more from food now.

impyimpyaj

The RDA of vitamins is almost always a minimum, and you have to consume a LOT of each vitamin to cause a problem. Overdosing on vitamins in your food, without supplements, is incredibly difficult. If you're concerned though, you can Google "vitamin A overdose" and find the symptoms, risk factors, and the dosage at which you would be causing harm.

little_miss_panda

I had a quick look and it does seem to be the supplements that cause the adverse effects, which I now don't take anyway, so I reckon I'll be ok if it's coming from food.

Cerebrus189

100-200% is not too much. There are some days where I get well over 700% because I eat sweet potatoes and squashes (soluble fiber). I wouldn't worry too much.

impyimpyaj

I was just in the pharmacy, and they have a supplement there that gives you 200% of your RDA of vitamin A. 10,000 IU. So I figure, if it's safe to take one of those every day, on top of whatever A you're getting in your food, you should be all right getting at least that much from food alone. Don't sweat it.

eireannyoung

There are actually two different types of Vitamin A. One is called Retinol, and that's the one you get from things like fish, meat, and some nuts, etc.... your body puts it to use right away. This is the one that is dangerous in very high doses, however, it is hard to ingest too much of this from food! From what I've read, the people who have overdosed on Retinol from food are those who eat organ meats such as liver more than once per week. You can also get too much of this by taking more than the recommended dosages of fish oil capsules (because the fish oils are extracted from the fish livers and other organs). I assume it would be the same way if you ate fish organ meat every day.

The other one is called Beta-Carotene, and this is the one that is only found in plant food sources such as carrots and spinach. Your body just eliminates this one if there is too much to use at once, so you will never reach toxic doses from food. If you're ingesting say, 200%, from plant sources then your body will convert what it needs to Vitamin A and dump the rest. The worst thing that will happen from eating too many carrots is that your skin will turn a bit orange - this is a harmless skin pigment reaction and does not indicate any kind of poisoning or toxicity.

This is information that I learned from my nutrition class in the spring. I no longer have the textbook to check, but I'm pretty sure most if not all these facts are correct - still, good to do your own research when reading what people say on the Internet

hpsnickers1

Our bodies are very very inefficient at converting beta-carotene into Vitamin A. That is what is in the supplements. "They" also do this to folate. Folic acid is the synthetic version and associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Folate - what you get in real food isn't. Now they get treated as interchangeable.

Enjoy your vitamin A!