One of the more unfortunate FDA labeling rules is allowing food manufacturers to label beta carotene as Vitamin A.
There’s a common misunderstanding that beta-carotene found in fruits and vegetables is the same thing as vitamin A.
It’s not!
And I will show you why – and why pregnant mothers who want to eat super healthy and feed their children with the greatest advantage possible are missing out!
[I am not saying not to eat carrots!!! But there are other foods you need to consume if you really want optimum Vit A levels for healing.]
It’s due to a misleading, yet completely legal, labeling practice. It confuses people intently eating a plant-based or vegan diet to incorrectly believe they are getting enough true Vitamin A in their diet when in fact they are sadly deficient.
What the label really refers to is the Vit A equivalent under ideal circumstances which can never be met in the real world.
Vitamin A Benefits & a few of the Studies:
- It protects against UV damage and slows signs of aging and wrinkles
- It encourages healthy skin cell production
- Promotes healthy reproduction of developing baby in utero
- Proper fetal skeletal and palate formation (straight teeth with no orthodontics!)
- Supports bones, teeth and hair and nails
- Reduces acne
- It protects against infections like measles and other infectious diseases and immune function
- It can help with vision issues like night blindness
Is Beta Carotene a Vitamin A Equivalent? Sort of
Carotenes (including beta-carotene) are pigments found abundantly in carrots and other brightly-colored fruits and veggies like cantaloupe and tomatoes. There are hundreds of naturally-occurring carotenoids with beta carotene and lutein being the most well-known.
So when you see “Vitamin A” listed on a product label, it is only because hundreds of carotenoids can legally be called “Vitamin A” – even though they are not.
For instance, bags of broccoli, cans of tomato-based soup or other caroteniod-rich foods have Vit A showing up under the “Nutrition Facts” on the label, when in fact, there is none contained.
While these are great sources of carotenoids, they don’t (and often can’t) convert immediately to vitamin A:
- Carrots
- Red, orange and yellow bell peppers
- Dark leafy greens
- Sweet potatoes
Poor Conversion Of Beta-Carotene To Vit A
Beta-carotene is only the precursor of retinol, the active form of vitamin A.
While beta-carotene can be converted into Vit A in humans, only 3% gets converted in a healthy adult. And that’s assuming you’re not one of the 45% of adults that don’t convert any beta-carotene into vitamin A at all.
If someone has poor gut health that makes conversion difficult or impossible.
Reasons Beta-Carotene Isn’t Converted To Vitamin A
- gut issues like leaky gut syndrome
- inflammatory bowel disease
- irritable bowel syndrome
- if a person has had even a single course of antibiotics
- has taken The Pill or steroids which disturb gut health
Diabetics and those with poor thyroid function, (a group that could well include at least half the adult US population), cannot make the conversion.
Children make the conversion very poorly and infants not at all — they must obtain their precious stores of vitamin A from animal fats— yet the low-fat diet is often recommended for children. (source)
Consume the foods I listed above with some fat to make the vitamin A bio-available to your body. Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat-soluble. Make sure the fats are healthy fats, like organic grass-fed butter preferably unpasteurized. Also look for grass-fed, organic, (preferably) grass finished beef!
Dr. David Brownstein says. “Vitamin A helps minimize cytokine storm. It helps minimize the inflammatory factors … It helps to lower TNF alpha. Our white blood cells need vitamin A as an integral part of their functioning. So, it helps both the innate and the adaptive immune systems stand up and fight.”
True Vitamin A Food Sources Are Animal Sources
Animal sources of retinol are bioavailable, which means the body can utilize it. The vitamin A from plant sources, in contrast, must first be converted to retinol to be useful in the body.
Because of this, we should ideally consume some animal sources of active Vit A, since these are easier for the body to use.
Vitamin A is found in significant amounts only in animal products that naturally have a higher fat content.
What are true vitamin A foods that give the body retinol, not carotenes?
- Virgin Cod Liver Oil – I recommend this orange flavored one and this Lemon and Peppermint Flavored one that are not processed and contain naturally occurring Vit A (not synthetic retinyl palmitate)
- CLO is a Proven Vaccine Detox if You See Your Baby or Child Regress
- Ancestral Supplements Grass-fed Beef liver capsules (grass-fed is key!)
- Milk from pastured dairy cows or goats – especially milk made from fast growing spring grasses!
- Liver from pastured chicken or beef – Enjoy pasture-raised, grass-fed liver 2-3 times per week or take desiccated liver capsules daily
- Egg yolks from hens foraging in pasture, ideally enjoy 2-4 eggs per day
- Heavy cream from grass-fed cows
- Butter from grass-fed cows
Periods of stress, rigorous exercise and fevers deplete this critical nutrient even more making a daily dose of (flavored) cod liver oil, arguably the best and most easily obtained whole food which supplies Vit. A in adequate amounts (sources), extremely important.
Evidence Fish or Cod Liver Oil Can Help Brain Processing Disorders, ADD
The wonderful book “Metabolic Approach to Cancer: Integrating Deep Nutrition and Nontoxic Bio-Individualized Therapies” reinforces the need for meat in moderation if it is grass fed and pastured. You can also get the ‘Cliff Notes’ summary version here.
Needs In Pregnancy
The WHO states it is vital to get Vitamin A in pregnancy. Night blindness is one sign of deficiency.
You’d have to eat a huge amount of beta-carotene from plants to meet vitamin A requirements during pregnancy. For example, 3 ounces of beef liver contains 27,000 IU of Vit. A.
Remember, only 3% of beta-carotene gets converted in a healthy adult.
As the chart below illustrates, to get the same amount of vitamin A from plants (assuming a 3% conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin A), you’d have to eat 4.4 pounds of cooked carrots, 40 pounds of raw carrots, and 50 cups of cooked kale. This is not a reasonable food source of vitamin A!

And remember: that’s assuming you’re not one of the 45% of people that don’t convert any beta-carotenes into retinol at all!
Can We Get Too Much Vit A?
Only extremely high levels of Vit A (over 100,000 IU/day) taken for months produce toxicity problems. It would be impossible to achieve toxicity with Vitamin A rich foods alone. The Weston A. Price Foundation reports that 100,000 IU of Vitamin A from food would consist of “3 tablespoons of high vitamin cod liver oil, 6 tablespoons of regular cod liver oil, two-and-one-half 100-gram servings of duck liver, about three 100-gram servings of beef liver, seven pounds of butter or 309 egg yolks.”
Hardly likely, but as they say, “talk to your doctor”!
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Deanna
Our son is allergic to dairy, eggs, and fish. That only leaves liver. Ugh. How in the heck do I get my family to eat liver? And thank you for your wonderful posts!!
Jacqueline
Let me think about that. We love liver, but I fix it a certain way, and only use clean, pastured meat! You might look into the dessicated liver capsules or tabs I listed in the post. That might be your best bet.. Hey, there is always liver pate! 😉
Blessings! J
Erica
Hi! Our local farm sells ground liver. So I mix it with meatballs or hamburgers or just make liver patties. I’m not sure if you could grind it at home. That’s beef liver. Chicken livers I cook up with a whole chicken and the taste is better than just fried. Hope that helps.
Janet
How are the Asian countries surviving then, even thriving “blue zone” Okinawans? The only thing on the list I saw eaten in Asia was the egg, but not that many times a week. Must be something else.
Janet
Well, fish too, but not cod liver oil.
Rebecca
Hi, I have really enjoyed your health and parental wisdom forewords over the years, thank you. However, sadly, there are so many adds disrupting my reading, that although I am thoroughly loving the advice, I am at this point, distraught enough to cancel my email subscription. I understand your heart, time, and intentions, and pray the best for you, and hope for more wisdom and goods and less advertising-thanks ~Rebecca Long
Jacqueline
Aw, Rebecca, dear one, I do understand!
Sadly, adding the ads has catapulted the blog into an income stream which the Lord has placed in my lap. ALL the income now goes to send special needs children at our church for medical care through our benevolence ministry! It is such a blessing and delight to see them respond and families get some relief!
If I could take the ads off, I certainly would, but this season now is for the kids!
Btw, if you are seeing ‘bad or nasty’ ads, they are not generated here, for I have opted out of anything that would be unwholesome or dishonoring to anyone that might read on the blog.
Just know that the ads you see are the ads you have searched in the past, maybe not exactly, but in the same category of product. Everyone sees different ads depending on their own searches and Google KNOWs exactly what each family buys and their preferences, conservative or liberal, religion, purchasing habits, income, etc even if you don’t buy anything online.
Anyway, thank you for such faithful reading for so many years, and thank you for being willing to share your heart with me!
Blessings,
Jacqueline
Lorelei
How do you cook your beef liver? I’ve had chicken (my dad used to make paste), but never beef liver.
Jacqueline
Let me see if I can find a recipe that is like how I do it, Lorelei! I don’t do it as much as we used to when we had our own cattle. I’ll comment again soon. 😀 J
Jeannette
Great information!
This post originated a few years ago, but I wanted to add a note about cooking liver, since a few people mentioned that. Look for a recipe where you soak the liver in milk before cooking. Then only cook to medium doneness. Those two tricks make it so much more palatable! Add onions or gravy as you please, but don’t overcook the meat.