Is it bad to get too much Vitamin A from FOOD SOURCES?

Question

I tend to eat a lot of Japanese squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, butternut squash, etc, thus taking in an excess amount of Vitamin A, sometimes up to eight times the recommended daily amount. I am a vegetarian, an aspiring vegan, and do not take supplements of any kind (so all the Vitamin A comes from natural food sources only), and eat plenty of other fruits and vegetables in addition to beans, legumes, grains, and fortified soy products. I'm just wondering if it's harmful in any way to consume too much Vitamin A from FOOD SOURCES only, and if so, how bad is it and what could be possible effects? Thank you!

Haha, no I am not turning yellow/orange... but when i was very little (around 6 or 7 yrs I think) my palms and bottoms of feet turned orange because I ate one too many oranges... and it's not like I feel sick or notice anything unusual about myself right now, I just realized I eat a lot of Vitamin A foods and was wondering...

Answer 1

are you turning orange?

Answer 2

Vitamin A is a fat soluable vitamin, which means it can be toxic in high doses. However, I never heard of anyone actually getting Vitamin A toxicity from food. Vitamin supplements are another story, though.

I have heard some oddball stories about "turning orange." Sounds strange to me; but I'll try surfing the net to if I can find any credible sources to back that up.

PS: the only source I could find that referred to getting too much vitamin A from food concerned the eating of polar bear livers. I'm pretty sure it would be very unlikely to get too much from eating vegetables or fruits.

Answer 3

Beta carotene does NOT cause vitamin A toxicity because it exerts negative feedback on the conversion to vitamin A when it reaches high levels. Excess carotenes are stored in subcutaneous fat.
Vitamin A from food (i.e. all animal sources and all pills) can cause toxicity if consumed in excess. Pills are the worst though.

Turing orange is from beta carotene, not vitamin A. The body makes the conversion when vitamin A levels drop. Think of it as a harmless "bank" of vitamin A, safely locked away. The reverse conversion is not possible.

Answer 4

We only get 20% of the vitamins from food sources.

Answer 5

Yes, believe it or not there are limits for every substance on this earth. Too much of any vitamin will give you poisoning.
For example too much of Vit C in the early stages will give you diarrhoea and is well documented.

In general Vitamin poisoning only occurs then the body takes in more vitamins than it can use, either be a short of long time, at certain levels these will have a toxic effect.

Before you give me thumbs down go look at the proof yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_poisoning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_D

Answer 6

Yes I am sure it is POSSIBLE. How LIKELY it is, well that depends really on how much you eat and how much it takes to be toxic. I didn't look up any scientific info on it ... if you start having weird symptoms like turning yellow or being able to see in the dark or something, then I'd cut back. :)

Answer 7

anything in excess is not good. too much vitamin A can be associated with osteoporosis and can also increase risk in hip fracture. it can also result to loss of appetite, headache, peeling of skin, hair loss, fatigue, menstrual irregularity, an enlarged liver or an enlarged spleen...

Answer 8

nothing wrong with that.. your body will use what it needs and the remaining will leave your body via the waste system.. lol
my baby son used to eat so much carrots and sweet potatoes while he was little that once when I took him to the pediatricion he laughed and said you can sure tell which babies eat their veggies. I asked why.. he said babies livers arent fully m ature and dont process the caratene as well as adults and eating so much yellow veggies makes their skin take on a pale orange look... I didnt realize this.. but it doesnt effect health in any way.. they outgrow this..

Answer 9

you onli get 20 percent of each food source

Answer 10

yes