![Vegetables like squash, carrots and broccoli contain vitamin A, an essential nutrient that people in half the world's countries are lacking. Courtesy Glowimages/Getty Images]()
Vegetables like squash, carrots and broccoli contain vitamin A, an essential nutrient that people in half the world’s countries are lacking. Courtesy Glowimages/Getty Images
On the PBS NewsHour on Wednesday, Miles O’Brien reports on Golden Rice, a genetically modified grain that scientists hope will add vitamin A to impoverished diets in the Philippines. According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency affects children and adults in more than half of all the countries in the world, contributing to blindness in children, chronic illness and death from infections. The nutrient deficiency is pervasive in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where poor populations lack access to vitamin-rich fruits, vegetables and meat.
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Why is vitamin A so important? Here’s what you need to know:
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble nutrient which is crucial for the immune system, reproduction and vision. It’s an essential component of rhodopsin, a protein found in the eyes that absorbs light. The vitamin is also crucial for healthy cell growth and development. Lack of vitamin A hinders embryo development in pregnant women, and can reduce sperm production in men.
The body absorbs vitamin A from two primary sources: preformed vitamin A which is found in animal products, such as dairy and meat, and provitamin A from plants. The body makes provitamin A out of plant pigments, particularly beta-carotene found in fruits and vegetables. Beta-carotene gives fruits and vegetables their red, yellow and orange colors, but vitamin A is also found in green leafy vegetables.
The best sources of vitamin A according to the National Institutes of Health are organ meats such as liver, broccoli, sweet red peppers, carrots, cantaloupe, dairy, mangos, apricots, squash, sweet potatoes, spinach, salmon and, in the United States, fortified breakfast cereals.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends at least 700 to 900 micrograms of vitamin A a day for adults and children over the age of 4. One whole raw carrot contains enough vitamin A to meet the FDA recommendation, as does one slice of pumpkin pie. One whole baked sweet potato gives you five times the daily recommended intake. Three ounces of pan-fried beef liver contains four times the recommended amount of vitamin A.
The first sign of vitamin A deficiency is a condition called xerophthalmia. Xerophthalmia is a chronic eye dryness that causes poor night vision and can eventually destroy the corneas and lead to blindness. Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children, according to the World Health Organization.
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This map, courtesy UNICEF and the World Health Organization, shows vitamin A deficiencies in preschool-age children around the world.
Resources: World Health Organization; National Institutes of Health
The post Are you getting enough vitamin A? Probably, but half of the world isn’t appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
