Vitamin A... for a beautifully healthy skin

Healthy skin… your path to a great look!

Your skin is in constant contact with the outside world and serves many functions such as helping to regulate your body's temperature, protecting your organs and above all, it’s the mirror of your beauty. Isn’t it worth taking care of? 

Nutrition plays an important role in your skin's health!

Your body uses nutrients from the foods you eat to make up the structure of your skin and to help it function from day to day. Vitamins, antioxidants, fatty acids and minerals contribute to your skin health and cell function. Eating a diet rich in vitamins and minerals will help nourish your skin from the inside to ultimately give you beautiful glowing skin on the outside.

What is Vitamin A and how does it benefit your skin?

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin available in both animal and plant foods. It’s one of the most important vitamins in skin health and that’s why a lot of beauty creams use it as a main ingredient. Vitamin A is beneficial in many ways:

• It strengthens the protective tissue of the skin and is essential for the maintenance and repair of the tissue.
• It helps prevent acne and reduces oil production from the skin.
• It acts as a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from external damage, and thus plays a role against premature aging.

Where to find vitamin A?

Women need 700 mcg of vitamin A per day which is widely available in the food we eat:

Food Item	Serving	Vitamin A (in micrograms)
Chicken liver	1  cooked liver	780
Carrot (raw)	1 carrot	601
Spinach	1/2 cup, cooked	472
Cantaloupe	1/2 medium melon	467
Winter squash	1 cup	401
Egg, boiled	1 large	85
Mango	1 fruit	79
Pink Grapefruit	½ grapefruit	71
Whole or low fat milk	1 cup (240 ml)	68
Broccoli	1/2 cup, cooked	60

To get sufficient amounts of vitamin A, remember to eat a varied diet that contains foods from all the essential food groups and provides five or more servings of colored fruits and vegetables.

Remember!

Anything in excess is not good. When consumed in excess, vitamin A gets stored in the body; and this is unhealthy. So make sure to consume vitamin A rich foods from natural food sources rather than from supplements that usually contain condensed amounts of vitamin A. 

Did you know? The intense the color of fruits and vegetables, the more vitamin A it has.

With the right food choices, you will ensure both a healthy body and a glowing, and beautifully healthy skin!