Comments on: What’s Up With Vitamin A?

By: Lin

Lin — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 21:56:35 +0000

My issue is with the Retinol Activity Equivalent score. I eat a mostly plant-based diet with some fish and eggs to supplement the protein I get from tempeh and other vegetable sources. Although I am always within the upper/lower limits of Vitamin A and its sub-categories, including retinol (averaging 93.6 mg, mostly from moderate consumption of fish and eggs, my REA is always in the red zone (average 1048 mg, mostly from vegetable sources). Can it be possible I am at risk for excess retinol when every other factor including retinol itself is in the healthy range? How does that happen? And if I’m doing something wrong, how should I correct my diet?

By: Kerim

Kerim — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 04:11:27 +0000

I find the issue with the trans fat reading. I follow a strict plant based wole food oil free diet, yet when I enter my foods I see a trans fat reading. I thought this only occurs in animal product and partially or fully hydrogenated oils.

By: Jaclyn

Jaclyn — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 01:05:27 +0000

Perhaps there could be a vegetarian option so you know that all Vitamin A is caretenoids.

By: Frank Alvarez

Frank Alvarez — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 22:59:23 +0000

In reply to jake3_14.

Jake

Thanks for the insight. We will add that to our features list.

Best regards,

Frank

By: jake3_14

jake3_14 — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:20:41 +0000

Adult human conversion efficiency of vegetable-based carotenoids is less than 5%, unless one is severely deficient in vit. A, in which case the body will convert carotenoids more efficiently. No one can say how much more efficiently, because studies on conversion efficiency are old and have been done mostly on children who were severely deficient in vit. A.

Cron-O-Meter should have another slider control in the dialog box you show above that enables users to set the conversion efficiency. The default should be set to 5%.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 20:31:41 +0000

Thank you Dax, that was an excellent explanation. I did not realize it so now I can eat my greens again!

By: Dax

Dax — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:38:51 +0000

In reply to Karen.

Hi Karen,

As Frank mentioned in the post, vitamin A from vegetable sources (carotenoids) is highly unlikely to lead to vitamin A toxicity. Much like the B vitamins, if you intake excess carotenoids, your body simply excretes them through the urine. This is because your body can ‘choose’ to digest the carotenoids and convert them to the retinol form of vitamin A, where they would then be stored in the body. If your vitamin A intake is the animal (retinol) form, the body doesn’t get to make this ‘choice’ and will digest as much retinol as you give it, potentially leading to toxicity over time.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:44:07 +0000

Hi Carolyn,

I was also shocked by how hard it is to get enough potassium and AVOID overdosing on vitamin A, which can cause terrible symptoms. Using cronometer has made me slowly change over my diet to healthier foods as I strive for 100% of each nutrient and to be in the green zone for the ratios. I eat less greens and carrots and more vegetables that don’t have much vitamin A. Turnip has a beautiful nutrient profile. I’m still not reaching my potassium but the recommendation may have something to do with balancing America’s high sodium intake so I’m not as concerned about it.

By: Frank Alvarez

Frank Alvarez — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 22:57:19 +0000

In reply to Carolyn herz.

Carolyn,

The DRI’s are easy to exceed, Below is bit on what they are, which you may already understand. Read this also as an example of how the DRI’s can confuse with CM use: https://cronometer.com/blog/?p=31517

The DRI’s (Dietary Reference Intakes) include 2 sets of numbers that serve as goals for nutrient intake. They are the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) and Adequate Intakes (AI).

The RDA’s reflect the average daily amount of a nutrient considered adequate to meet the needs of most people in a population. The AI’s where developed for nutrients that do not have enough scientific data to be given a RDA, which subsequently are given an AI. The Tolerable Upper Limit (TUL) is the recommended maximum of a nutrient someone should consume.

In Cronometer the Nutrient Targets shows your nutrition targets for the day. Each target has an optional minimum and maximum value. By default, the minimum is set to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) value for your body type, and the maximum is set to the Tolerable Upper Limit (TUL), when available. You should strive to get at least 100% of your daily targets from your diet to prevent malnourishment.

I hope that sorts things out for you.

Regards,

Frank

By: Carolyn herz

Carolyn herz — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:48:48 +0000

It is impossible to eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables (5 at the lowest end) and not exceed the vit a recommendations by several orders of magnitude. something wrong here, which your explanation doesn’t really address. Similarly, I eat about 9 servings of crruit and veg per day (35 grams of fiber) and have never, not even once, reached the daily RDA of potassium. Strange