Recently, I’ve noticed reduced redness of my old acne scars and generally a more even skin tone. The usual redness now becomes a pink glow. The whiteness of my eyes are clear white, which is not usually the case. It almost always has some red veins surrounding the iris, just because I’m a daily contact lens wearer. Anyway, I think I have to thank ABC soup, tons of mangoes, and kale and sweet potato for all this.
Vitamin A is an antioxidant responsible for good vision, sun protection for the skin, and for erasing signs of aging (wrinkles, scars, etc). Most anti-blemish and anti-aging beauty products contain the retinoid and/or retinyl palmitate forms of vitamin A, which helps to clear acne and reduce inflammation of the skin. Although this increases the skin’s sensitivity to the sun, eating a good amount of vitamin A-rich foods will help in maintaining the health of your eyes and skin.
The following list of foods are things I have in my pantry for the past couple of weeks, and these happen to be foods I don’t usually eat (except for mangoes and sweet potatoes for my regular sweet tooth). But more importantly, these foods are rich in vitamin A.
1. Carrots
Just 1 piece of raw carrot contains 5,411 IU of vitamin A, which exceeded the daily RDA of 3,000 IU. What’s more, if you slice this piece of carrot into pieces till it fills half a cup, then put it into boiling water, the vitamin A content rises up to 22,567 IU. That’s huge nutrition for so little calories.
2. Sweet potatoes
Love the purple ones. They’re sweeter than the orange kinds!
This is one of my favorite snacks. Somehow I don’t need anything else after eating soft, mashed, cooked sweet potatoes. One cup of it gives you 21,909 IU, more than enough for a day’s needs. Sweet potatoes are not only delicious, but they also fill you up with fiber and protect the health of your skin. These yams are also high in vitamin C, which increases your body’s collagen production and helps smoothing out wrinkles.
3. Mangoes
Ah, my favorite snack. I normally buy the sliced package from Walgreens. I confess: Until now, I still don’t know how to slice a mango. But I’m willing to buy expensive packages of sliced mangoes just to satisfy my cravings for it. My sweet tooth constantly seeks either mangoes or chocolate. Anyway, 1 cup of sliced mangoes contains 1,262 IU. I personally overeat 3 cups at once, because it tastes so good. Just one small mango can provide you with a quarter of your daily RDA of vitamin C too.
4. Tomatoes
Although I eat enough variety of vegetables, I seldom include tomatoes in my pantry. However, since I’ve recently made my ABC soup, I’ve grown to love it (the cooked kind, I don’t like it raw). A cup of raw ones serves you with 1,262 IU, although, like carrots, the vitamin A contents will increase significantly when you boil them.
5. Kale
I just freeze them so that they’ll last longer.
For leafy greens, I usually prefer spinach to kale, just because kale is crunchier and more bitter. However, like tomatoes and carrots, vitamin A content rises when boiled. Half a cup of boiled kale contains 9,558 IU of vitamin A. I like it boiled just because it loses its crunchiness and bitterness. I only like the bitterness when kale is in the form of kale chips. There are plenty of people out there who consumes kale in their juices and smoothies. So that’s another way to make this nutritious vegetable tasty.
Muchaluva,
Stace
“Come back sooner!!!” He said today during our Skype chat. “You think I don’t want to???” I replied.) So I am now here, spending all day doing my loaded assignments, secretly hoping if I get things done early, time will fly faster (when I know deep down it won’t).
