LACK OF VITAMIN A IS NOT ALLOWED

Vitamin A is one of micronutrients vital to human body, especially for women and children.

However, deficiency in vitamin A still remains high among the public, especially in women and children. On a discussion about this issue, Head of Public Nutrition Department, PhD. Doctor Tran Minh Hanh, Center of Nutrition in Ho Chi Minh City indicated that:

Causes of Vitamin A deficiency

Vitamin A exists in two different types of retinol and caroten in daily diet. Retinol can only be found in foods of animal origin while carotene is available in plant foods such as dark green vegetables, and yellow-colored roots and fruits. An unbalanced diet comprising of too low levels of foods of animal origin, oil and grease, fruits and vegetables and etc. is the major cause of vitamin A deficiency.

As vitamin A and carotenes are fragile against temperature and sunlight, improper processing and storage can lead to loss of vitamin A in daily diet.

For breast-fed infants, deficit vitamin A in breast milk will result in malnutrition at early ages.

Vitamin A and preformed vitamin A (beta - carotene) are susceptible to get oxidized under sunlight. Therefore, fresh foods containing vitamin A should be kept in sealed bags, in cool places, avoiding prolonged storage even when being kept in refrigerator.

When cooked, vitamin A is more susceptible to fragile under the conditions of longer cooking time in higher temperature. Instead, we should only steam our foods to retain as much vitamin A as possible. Recap while cooking also helps avoid loss of vitamin A.

Consequences of deficit vitamin A

Lack of vitamin A causes epithelial cells to degenerate and to be thickened while decreasing body immune system. Specially, vitamin A deficiency will result in night blindness, dry eyes, and corneal scarring. More seriously, insufficient vitamin A levels without timely treatment can lead to permanent blindness.

In addition, people who lack vitamin A are proned to infected diseases such as respiratory infections, diarrhea, and skin infections, etc. For young children, such deficiency will slow down body growth, affecting their intellectual development. Children, therefore, are more vulnerable to weight loss and high risk of mortality. Pregnant women with low levels of vitamin A can not provide sufficient nutrients for natural development of their fetuses.

It should be noted that preforms of vitamin A, so-called carotenes are much available in dark green and yellow colored vegetables (such as water spinach, amaranth,  malabar spinach, carrots, cauliflower, Gac fruits, etc.). When absorbed into the body, these carotenes will be transformed into vitamin A necessary for our body functions. For infants, breast milk is the major source of vitamin A. As a result, daily diets of women in pregnancy and breatfeeding should be of great concern.