Article at a Glance

• Vitamin A is one of 13 essential vitamins you need in your diet.
• Vitamin A is found in retinoids and carotenoids.
• You can get vitamin A from plants, animal food sources, and nutritional supplements.
• Vitamin A deficiency is rare in the U.S., but if left untreated it can cause serious eye complications.

Do you ever find yourself cutting evening plans short so you can race home while it’s still light outside? As we get older our eyes change, and the moonlit drives you once enjoyed may now fill you with anxiety. A variety of factors can cause night blindness, but it’s possible that your diet may be lacking vitamin A. Find out how vitamin A affects your eyes and what you can do to get enough of it.

What Is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A is one of the 13 essential vitamins you need in your diet because your body cannot make enough on its own.^[1]

Along with being essential, vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it is stored in your liver or fat tissue. Since these vitamins are not easily flushed from your body like water-soluble vitamins, they have the potential to accumulate and cause toxic side effects. However, there is no need to stress since vitamin A toxicity is uncommon, and you would have to take excessively high amounts to reach toxic levels.

Why You Need Vitamin A

Vitamin A is essential for many physiological functions, but it is most popularly known for supporting your eye health. Some of the benefits of vitamin A include: 

• Maintaining the health of your cornea, the outer tissue of your eye that helps you process light
• Supporting your eyes’ rods, which allow you to see black and white, and cones, which allow you to see color
• Helping to prevent age-related macular degeneration
• Reducing the risk of night blindness

 Aside from ocular health, vitamin A supports immunity, bone strength, and cellular functions.

The Forms of Vitamin A

There are two forms of vitamin A: 

• Retinoids are best for absorption. They are found in animal sources. The main compounds include retinol, the most bioavailable form; retinal, which is converted into other retinoids; and retinyl esters, which is the storage form of vitamin A.
• Carotenoids come from plants. They are less bioavailable because your body must convert them into retinoids for absorption. For example, carotenoid beta-carotene (from carrots, as an example) can become vitamin A, but first, it must be converted into retinal, and then again into retinol.

Although retinoids are 6 times more bioavailable, carotenoids have unique, beneficial functions as antioxidants and may aid in the prevention of some chronic illnesses.

Where to Get Vitamin A

Different food sources use different forms of vitamin A. Plants provide carotenoids whereas animal sources are high in retinoids. Examples of dietary sources rich in vitamin A include:

• Liver
• Eggs
• Milk
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes
• Peppers
• Kale

How Much Vitamin A Do You Need?

Everyone is different, and certain factors such as your age, sex, or health will affect your unique nutritional needs. To provide a general guide, the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) established the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) to meet the needs of most healthy individuals. Since the different forms of vitamin A are not equally absorbed, the RDA is expressed in micrograms of retinol activity equivalents (RAE) to account for the total vitamin content of the retinoid and carotenoid forms.

Vitamin A RDA :

• Infants (0 – 12 months):  400-500 mcg/day RAE
• Children (1 – 8 years):  300-400 mcg/day RAE
• Adolescents (9 – 18 years):  600-900 mcg/day RAE
• Adults (19+ years):  700-900 mcg/day RAE
• Pregnant and nursing women:  750-1,300 mcg/day RAE

If you have a preexisting health condition or concern or take prescription medication, it’s important to talk to your doctor or registered dietitian about your nutrition, especially when choosing which supplements and dosages are optimal for your health.

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