Beta Carotene is NOT vitamin AWith all of the fear and anxiety around vitamin A, many people are led to believe that beta carotene and other carotenoids, often called pro vitamin A are just as good. They are lulled into a false sense of security that their body can convert beta carotene into vitamin A whenever it needs to.While it’s true that many people can convert beta carotene into vitamin A, what most people and even many health professionals don’t realise (or have forgotten) is that this conversion does not happen inside your body, it happens in your digestive tract. This is important to understand as it means that you don’t have a stockpile of beta carotene inside your body that is converted to vitamin A as needed. Beta carotene is converted to vitamin A in the walls of your small intestine in the prescence of bile salts and special enzymes.In order for beta carotene to be successfully converted you also need:1. FatBile salts are only released into your small intestine when you eat fat. No fat, no bile, no bile salts no conversion of beta carotene. This means that your fat free snack of a carrot or carrot juice, while loaded with beta carotene will simply not be converted to vitamin A. A low fat diet does not bode well for good vitamin A levels.2. ZincThe enzymes required to convert beta carotene to vitamin A are dependent upon zinc. If you are zinc deficient your body will not be able to produce the required enzymes and you will fail to convert beta carotene to vitamin A. 80-90% of Australian adults are estimated to have zinc deficient diets. Alcohol and sugar both significantly increase requirements for zinc and vegetarians, unless they supplement are almost guaranteed to be zinc deficient. Children born to zinc deficient mothers will also suffer from zinc deficiency during childhood, especially with our tendency to feed babies and children grain based diets.Poor ConvertersCertain health conditions, dietary or lifestyle factors result in very poor conversion of beta carotene. If you fall into any of the following categories, consider supplementing your diet with either liver, egg yolks or cod liver oil.
- Children convert beta carotene to vitamin A very poorly and infants do not posses the ability and require vitamin A from animal foods.
- Underactive thyroid
- Diabetes
- Alcohol consumption
- Low fat diet
- Crohn’s disease
- Celiac disease
- Cystic fibrosis
- Surgical removal of part or all of the stomach
- Gall bladder disease or surgical removal of the gall bladder
The best food sources of vitamin A are:
- Butter (use butter liberally on cooked vegetables to ensure that beta carotene is converted to extra vitamin A)
- Egg yolks (Tigers Milk or a raw egg yolk beaten into soups is an easy way to consume more nutrient and vitamin A rich egg yolks)
- Liver
- Sea foods including shellfish
- Cod liver oil is the ideal supplemental form of natural vitamin A
Symptoms of vitamin A deficiencyVitamin A is essential for healthy eyes, skin, urinary tract, respiratory tract, immune system, digestive system and fertility. The symptoms of vitamin A deficiency are many and varied but the most commonly experienced symptoms include:
- Dry, scaly and rough skin on the backs of arms and thighs. This dry and bumpy skin looks and feels like blocked hair follicles or a permanent version of the ‘goose flesh’ you experience when cold. Known as hyperkeratosis, it starts on the back of arms, thighs and buttocks but can spread to the whole body if severe.
- Eye problems: Poor night vision (if you hate driving at night time you probably have poor night vision and are vitamin A deficient); Dry eyes and Corneal ulceration
- Frequent viral infections
Aug 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I had an experience of what I took to be vitamin A toxicity but I’m not sure now. Both my husband and I, one spring, were taking about 1 tablespoon a day of raw, frozen liver with our morning smoothie. One morning we had 3 tablespoons and then 3 again that night. We were catching a flight with out 1 year old the next morning and couldn’t take the liver with us to we pigged out. During the night, my husband stayed awake with joint pain and cramps and incredible nausea. I woke up the next day and was ok until we were standing in line at the airport. We reached the front (barely). I was doubled over in pain and a kind of sleepiness I couldn’t shake. I also felt nauseas. The flight was horrendous and as soon as we arrived at our destination, we slept for three hours. We awoke with a start, bounced out of bed feeling on top of the world and wondering what the hell our 1 year old had been doing while we were passed out. I’m not sure who watched over him that day but he was fine. Does that sound like Vitamin A overdose to you Sarah?
Aug 13th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Joanne, your symptoms do indeed sound a bit like acute vitamin A toxicity: nausea, stomach and joint pain.
The effects of acute vitamin A toxicity include fatigue, headache, insomnia, irritibility, painful bones and joints and peeling skin. Symptoms resolve quickly once vitamin A is stopped.
How long where you having a daily tablespoon of raw liver for? It may have been that ‘pigging out’ on all the extra liver was a little too much if you’d been taking the the raw liver for a while especially if combined with cod liver oil.
But the symptoms could also be the result of a viral or other infection or the liver was a bit suspect (was it frozen?) - but i guess we’ll never know - unless you’re keen to repeat the experiment again!
Aug 13th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
That’s a definite NO! It was horrendous. I thought it was Vit A overdose ’cause when we came to again, we felt absolutely over the moon, energetic and proceeded to renovate two units in 45 deg heat with no air conditioning, in 10 days, with a toddler in tow. We were taking the liver for a number of weeks at a daily dose of about 1 tablespoon and had worked up to that (it grossed us out back then). The liver was frozen but the last lot had thawed. That’s what lead me to believe it may have been bacterial but we didn’t vomit. Oh, I’ve done that. Don’t mention the word Pemmican in front of my husband. I’m pretty sure from the painful bones bit that it was too much. We were taking CLO as well.
Aug 16th, 2008 at 12:18 am
After about 10 years vegetarian / vegan I started drinking vegie juices. Anyway I drank heaps of carrot juice for about 6 weeks. My body from head to toe became very very orange and even when I stopped the carrot juice the orange stayed for many weeks. Over the next several years I would go orange in the face and hands everytime I ate a good serving of brocoli, spinach, pumpkin or sweet potato and sometimes just from a tiny amount. It was awful. Even when I began eating meat ( no fat ) I still had this problem so I started avoiding veg and eating salad low in caroteins. Now after 2 years of eating properly with lots of good animal fats I finally have no more orange and I can enjoy pumpkin soup again thanks to Sally Fallon.
Aug 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Dear Sarah,
I am 12 weeks pregnant. In my second month I was taking prenatal multivitamins that contain 4,000 IU of vitamin A plus my diet contains of eggs, carrots, sweet potato, etc. One day, by accident I took double dose of my vitamin. Later I found out about teratogenic effect of Vitamin A and now I am worrying sick about my baby.
What are YOUR thoughts about my situation, please.
Aug 27th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Dear pregnant
According to the World Health Organisation, there are more birth defects associated with vitamin A deficiency than from toxicity. Synthetic derivatives of vitamin A used to treat acne and other skin conditions are exceedingly toxic and associated with a high risk of birth defects - however this is not relevant to your situation.
Check you pregnancy prenatal multi and you will probably find that it does not actually contain any actual preformed vitamin A or retinol. I don’t know of any that do (but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there). Most contain beta carotene and then underneath is written “equivalent to X iu of vitamin A”. Beta carotene is NOT the equivalent of vitamin A and no one has 100% conversion. Even the beta carotene in your pumpkin and sweet potato will not be converted to very much vitamin A. This poor conversion is widely acknowledged in medical literature and this is why they give high amounts of actual vitamin A (retinol) and not beta carotene when trying to achieve therapuetic effects from vitamin A.
Your baby is quite safe from the teratogenic effects of vitamin A derived from beta carotene.
Vitamin A is essential in pregnancy - too many babies are born with low vitamin A stores and poor immunity because their mum’s were deficient during pregnancy. This puts them a much greater risk of respiratory infections as babies.
To help ease your anxiety be sure to read Vitamin A Saga on the Weston A Price website (vitamin A saga)
Aug 27th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Hi Cathy
You were suffering from carotenemia or orange discolouration of the skin due to excess beta carotene. If you over do the carrot juice or other orange veges the beta carotene is deposited in your skin, usually starting with the palms of your hands. It’s generally not serious but can cause temporary health problems, mostly you just have to put up with looking like you’ve used a bad 80’s fake tan or a have a serious case of jaundice.
It’s interesting that it would still occur while eating other vege such as broccoli etc. I’ve not come accross this before. I wonder if it would have still occurred if you’d had lashings of butter with your broccoli and vege. Glad to hear that you can enjoy pumpkin soup again without turning orange!
Aug 27th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Thanks Sarah, well I have just started with the green and orange vege again with the butter and it all is good. The pumpkin soup did make me go a bit orange, maybe not enough fat or too much pumpkin. What ever is going on that carrot juicing I did all those years ago while vegan has had negative lasting effects because its now 5 years later.
I would never do lots of juicing again. Herb teas are good.