What Are Vitamin A deficiency Disorders?
Deficiency disorders of vitamin A mainly involve the eye. Deficiency of vitamin A has become less common, even in developing countries due to use of large prophylactic doses (110,000 micrograms orally to children of 1 to 6 years of age, every 6 months) of vitamin A to infants and availability of vitamin A fortified foods. The vitamin A deficiency disorders include night blindness, conjunctival xerosis, corneal xerosis, Bitot’s spots and keratomalacia. There are also extra ocular manifestations. Xerophthalmia or dry eye is the term, which comprises all the ocular manifestations of the vitamin A deficiency including night blindness to keratomalacia.
Night blindness:
The vitamin A deficiency first causes night blindness or inability to see in dim light. This is common in poor under developed countries and seen mainly in children. The mother first detects the condition when she observes that the child can not see in dark or in the evening. This is due to impairment in dark adaptation, which requires vitamin A. Night blindness increases unless the vitamin A consumption is increased and gets worsened if the child has diarrhea or other infection.
Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts, Diseases Tags: Bitot’s spot, Conjunctival Xerosis, Corneal Xerosis, Keratomalacia, Night blindness
Different Food Sources of Vitamin A
Vitamin A is widely distributed among animal and plant sources of our food. In animal foods vitamin A is present as preformed vitamin A (retinol) and in plant foods vitamin A is present as provitamin (carotenes, such as beta carotene).
The vitamin A value of food is expressed as retinol activity equivalent (RAE). One RAE is equivalent of 1 mcg (microgram) of retinol, 12 mcg of beta carotene, and 24 mcg of other provitamin-A carotenoids.
Animal Sources of Vitamin A:
Liver, egg and fish are excellent source of vitamin A (preformed vitamin A). Other rich sources of vitamin A of animal origin include butter, cheese, meat etc. The richest natural source of vitamin A is fish liver oil (cod liver oil, halibut liver oil etc.), but fish liver oil is generally used as dietary supplement for vitamin A deficiency, rather than as diet or food source of vitamin A. Presence of fat in the diet aid absorption of vitamin A as it is fat soluble vitamin.
Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts Tags: beta carotene, retinol, Vitamin A
Medicinal Uses of Bitter Gourd
Bitter gourd also known as bitter melon has several medicinal properties. Bitter gourd is being used for medicinal purpose in various parts of the world for different ailments. It is part of traditional medicine systems in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. It grows in tropics and subtropical regions. Various medicinal properties of bitter gourd includes antidiabetic property, anti-helminthic property, antiviral property, anti malarial property, anti cancer property, and various other medicinal properties.
There are various active substances/ingredients in bitter gourd/melon, which are responsible for the various medicinal properties bitter gourd has. But all medicinal properties of bitter gourd can not be explained by presence of various active substances/ingredients. Various active ingredients present in bitter gourd include momordicin I and momordicin II, and active glycosides such as charantin, momordin, momordicosides etc.
Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts, Health Information Tags: abortificient, Antihelminthic
Dietary Sources of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are very important nutrients for optimal health of human body. These are present in foods of animal origin as well as in foods of vegetable origin. But the amount of omega-3 fatty acids present in foods of animal origin is much higher, especially in fish (sea fish as well as fresh water fish) and other marine animals. Omega-3 fatty acids present in foods of plant origin are comparatively lower than foods of animal origin.
If you are a vegetarian/vegan, it is important to plan your diet well to meet the requirements of not only omega-3 fatty acids, but other essential nutrients as well for optimal health condition, such as proteins, vitamins etc. In most of the commonly used cereals (as staple diet) such as rice, wheat, maize/corn etc. may not contain sufficient amount of omega-3 fatty acids to meet the daily requirement essential for best health state, as in the foods of plant origin only few have sufficient amount of omega-3 fatty acids to meet daily requirement.
Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts Tags: flaxseed, omega-3 fatty acids, salmon
Cardiovascular and Anti Cancer Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Anticancer effects of Omega-3 fatty acids:
Omega-3 fatty acids have anti cancer properties, especially against breast (high DHA reduce breast cancer risk in women), colon, and prostate cancer. Omega-3 fatty acids have shown to slow down histopathological changes of prostate gland tumor and slow down growth of prostate tumor in mice. The survival of mice with prostate tumor also improves if omega-3 fatty acids are given in diet in adequate quantity. However the same results in mice cold not reproduced in humans consistently. At present there is no clear evidence that omega-3 fatty acids can prevent cancer, reduce mortality from cancer. But some studies have found that omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA can be helpful in cancer patients, as it can improve appetite (and cause weight gain in cancer patients who lost extreme body weight) and improve quality of life especially in cancer cachexia (extreme weight loss due to cancer) patients. EPA also helps to retain muscle mass in cancer cachexia patients.Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts Tags: Cardiovascular health
Health Risks of Omega-3 fatty acids
We all are aware of the potential health benefits (cardiovascular health benefits, not cardiovascular health benefits such as prevention of certain cancers, anti-inflammatory, immune function etc.) of omega-3 fatty acids (ALA or alpha-linolenic acid, EPA or eicosapentaenoic acid and DHA or docosahexaenoic acids), but very few of us are aware of the health risks involved with excess (more than recommended daily intake) consumption of omega-3 fatty acids.
Some health risks are associated with excess consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, mainly EPA and DHA. It is reported that intake of EPA and DHA more than 3 grams per day is associated with health risks. The health risks associated with excess intake of EPA and DHA can be cardiac health risks and non cardiac health risks. The potential of health risks associated with excess consumption of omega-3 fatty acids of DHA and EPA is endorsed by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements as well as United States Food and Drug Administration.Categories: Diet & Nutrition Facts Tags:
