Beta Carotene- “A”  Builder and a Fighter

Weekly Focus: Vitamin A found in the beta carotene of red, orange, yellow and dark green colored vegetables and fruit.

Sometimes I cook things which cause my family to just shake their heads, yet the dogs get these 10 ingredient disasters and seem pretty happy about it.  So the other day I gave in to impassioned pleas for frozen pot pies just to prove that I am still completely sane when it comes to food. We ate fourteen grams of fat per pie…and the little bowl of pie crust was only a couple inches wide!!  But to stay positive, I will say there is one good thing about any fat (as long as it isn’t trans fat). Fat is the only vehicle for transporting the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K through the body to where they are needed for life sustaining work.  So vitamin A and the other fat solubles were hitching quite a ride through my bloodstream that day.

Most people who only know two things about vitamins seem to know that vitamin A is good for your eyes, and that carrots are good for your eyes.  You got it, carrots have vitamin A.  The strong orange color is the indicator that there is beta-carotene in carrots, and that is what is converted to vitamin A when I eat it.  But what you might not know is that beta -carotene not only converts to vitamin A, but is also a powerful antioxidant. Like a knight on a shiny white horse it swoops down with its sword to annihilate the freedom of free radicals.  In other words, it is one of the few known micronutrients which stops destructive atoms (free radicals) before they can damage cells. 

So A it is a builder of things like eyes, and its source, beta carotene, is also a radical fighter. Picture a carpenter with a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other.  Obviously we need this guy on our side in the campaign to protect and advance our health.  Where can you get some?  Well, liver for one, but I prefer dark colored vegetables or fruit like carrots, butternut squash, cantaloupe, and the dark green leafy vegetables like kale and collard greens.

Great sources of beta-carotene and vitamin A are beef and chicken liver,  dark colored leafy greens like spinach, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, orange colored squashes, cantaloupe, and red bell peppers.

For further reading on Vitamin A:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-a/ns_patient-vitamina 
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4452

Molly