Did you know that we don’t convert very much betacarotene from our food, to fully formed retinol?
Often we think we are eating a vegetable high in “retinol”, but actually it’s high in betacarotene, so the amount of available retinol we get from that food is relatively minimal. We need to have plenty of minerals present in the body to help with that conversion, and many of us don’t convert well due to imbalances. There are even some people who don’t have fully functioning metabolic pathways so they literally cannot convert well.
This is one reason why we encourage retinol consumption from whole food sources – cod liver oil, grassfed beef liver, grassfed butter and free range (and ideally organic) eggs.
The longer we have been consuming a low retinol diet, the more consistent with higher food based retinol I would be focused on. I know for my own situation, I’ve had much of my life not eating much retinol, if any! I remember growing up fearing butter and fats, and no chance I would eat liver (I still am working on the mental blocks there).
If you would like help to understand how you can build more retinol into your routine, or understanding where your minerals as a whole are, book in with one of the team so that we can help you learn food based solutions!
– Kristan