What is vitamin A?
Vitamin A is a vital nutrient that is important for vision, immune function and embryonic development. However, vitamin A does not actually describe just one vitamin, but a whole group of compounds that have a vitamin A effect. The central form in which vitamin A acts in the body is retinol - which makes sense, as the retina in the eye is also called the retina!
Where do you get vitamin A from?
Retinol is only found in animal foods such as liver, eggs, milk and some types of fish and cheese. But what do vegans do then? No problem, because plants contain so-called provitamin A carotenoids, which can easily be converted to retinol. This means that despite a lack of retinol in your diet, you can still get enough of it - how practical!
The most important provitamin A is β-carotene, which can be converted to retinol particularly well and is consumed quite a lot by most people. It is found in carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, red peppers, kale, spinach, lamb's lettuce, apricots and mango, for example. That makes for some delicious dishes such as sweet potato and pumpkin curry or a fruity lamb's lettuce salad with mango and a nutty topping from the KoRo cosmos. And you can enjoy a good portion of it right away, because even though the body can convert β-carotene into retinol, you need six times as much of it as if you were to take in vitamin A directly. But carotenoids have another useful add-on: they have an antioxidant effect!
How much vitamin A do you need?
We absolutely need retinol, but not necessarily vitamin A from animal products. The only problem is that if you don't take in any vitamin A, you need a lot of carotenoids so that your body can convert it into vitamin A. For this to work, you should eat as varied a diet as possible. Our motto for carotenoids: Orange is ideal! Orange foods are simply pretty blatant β-carotene suppliers.
The German Nutrition Society (DGE) recommends a daily intake of 700-950 retinol activity equivalents - RAE for short - for adults. This sounds more complicated than it actually is, because we know that we need six times as much β-carotene as vitamin A to get the same amount of retinol. This is why the intake is given in RAE, so that both carotenoids and vitamin A can be included in the calculation. Logical, isn't it? And we have a real pro tip for you: vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin - so our body can absorb it better in combination with fat. If you consume vitamin A directly from animal foods, there is usually already enough fat in it. If you prefer to rely on carotenoids from plant-based foods, combine them with a little oil, nut butter, nuts or seeds - easy!
What happens in the event of a deficiency?
Good news: Vitamin A deficiency is rare in Germany. Only chronic illnesses or a very unbalanced diet can lead to a deficiency. But if you can combine various orange treats with KoRo nut butter, you must just love them, right? Unfortunately, there is also some bad news: in developing countries, children in particular often suffer from a vitamin A deficiency. This can have unspecific symptoms such as loss of appetite, dry skin, muscle weakness or growth retardation, but can also weaken the immune system and even lead to blindness or death. For around 20 years, research has therefore been conducted into so-called "golden rice" - a type of rice that contains more β-carotene than conventional rice through genetic modification and could therefore potentially improve the supply of vitamin A in developing countries. Research is currently still in full swing!