Do Vegetarians Need to Be Concerned About Vitamin A?

The Institute of Medicine recently released new recommendations for a number of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A. Their report concluded that fruits and vegetables provide the body with half as much vitamin A as previously thought. Some newspaper reports warned that vegetarians might need to eat more dark-colored fruits and vegetables if they rely on these foods for vitamin A and don't get vitamin A from meat, fish, eggs, or vitamin A-fortified milk. This is a strange warning since vitamin A deficiency is very rarely reported in the United States, even among those relying on fruits and vegetables for vitamin A.

Is this something to be concerned about? Probably not. Dark-colored fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and apricots are quite high in beta-carotene, which our bodies make into vitamin A. Even if these foods are only half as effective at supplying vitamin A as we thought, they are still great sources. For example, the new RDA for vitamin A is 900 micrograms per day for men and 700 micrograms per day for women. Since 12 micrograms of beta-carotene are needed to provide the equivalent of 1 microgram of vitamin A, if you only used foods containing beta-carotene to meet your vitamin A requirements, a safe level of beta-carotene would be 8,400 micrograms (700 x 12) for women and 10,800 micrograms (900 x 12) for men. Please note that these are micrograms of beta-carotene, NOT vitamin A. A half-cup of cooked carrots provides 6,252 micrograms of beta-carotene, while one medium raw carrot provides 5,390 micrograms. A half-cup of sweet potatoes provides 9,488 micrograms of beta-carotene, two apricots provide 1,788 micrograms, and a half-cup of broccoli has 959 micrograms. As you can see, eating a couple of servings of dark green vegetables or deep-orange fruits and vegetables daily can easily provide all the vitamin A you need. In addition, some brands of soymilk are fortified with vitamin A. Do vegetarians need to be concerned about vitamin A? No, as long as we eat a variety of fruits and vegetables regularly.

We'll have more about the new recommendations for iron and zinc in the July/August issue of Vegetarian Journal.

Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. 2000. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.<www.nas.edu>