Saturday, June 7, 2014

Retinoids, Vitamin A


Retinoids

As you can see in the chart above, there are two basic forms of vitamin A: retinoids (found in animal foods) and carotenoids (found in plant foods). These two forms aren't just chemically different - they also provide us with different types of health benefits. There are some specific immune, inflammatory, genetic, and reproductive-related benefits of vitamin A that can only be obtained from the retinoid forms of the vitamin. These retinoid forms can be especially important with respect to pregnancy and childbirth, infancy, childhood growth, night vision, red blood cell production, and resistance to infectious disease. Yet even if we are not faced with any of these special conditions, each of us needs retinoid forms of vitamin A.

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