One of the most valuable and useful of all nutrients, Vitamin A is essential for the healthy growth and maintenance of all body tissue covering both external and internal surfaces of your body. Vitamin A is also required for healthy vision, including night vision. Additionally, vitamin A assists in bone and tooth formation and is essential to your immune system, the system that defends you from disease.

Our bodies cannot make vitamin A, so we must get it from our food, or supplements. Animal products contain vitamin A. Many vegetables and fruits contain alpha and beta carotenes, which are changed into vitamin A in our intestines. Carotene is the orange/yellow pigment in carrots, squash, mango, apricots, sweet potatoes, etc. Dark green vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli also contain carotene, but the orange color is masked by the darker green pigment in chlorophyll.

If your nutritional score indicates a possible Vitamin A deficiency, eat more vitamin A-rich foods. Some of the best sources are halibut, salmon, swordfish, crab (don't eat fish from polluted waters), potatoes, carrots, cod liver oil, milk products, eggs, sweet potatoes, organic beef liver, apricots, greens (dandelion, Swiss chard, collards), dark cherries, cantaloupe and other yellow and green fruits and vegetables like carrots, winter squash and pumpkin. You should lean heavily towards the fish, fruits and vegetables and not the whole milk products, because of their high fat content. Take a multivitamin/mineral tablet containing 10,000 I.U.'s of vitamin A daily.

If you eat potato chips, french fries and other deep fried foods on a daily basis you are destroying large quantities of vitamin A in your system.

If you are a woman who is pregnant or who could become pregnant in the next few months, do NOT take vitamin A supplements. The 10,000 I.U.'s usually found in a multivitamin is safe, but higher doses in the first three months of pregnancy have been associated with birth defects. Even if this does not apply to you, it's wise to talk to a holistic health care practitioner before taking large doses of vitamin A.

Beta-carotene, which is found in high quantities in green and yellow vegetables, converts to vitamin A in the body. It's a powerful immune system booster and is believed to provide protection from cancer and other diseases. Some people, however, have trouble converting beta-carotene into vitamin A, so we shouldn't rely solely on it for vitamin A requirements.