Debunking Vitamin A Myths During Pregnancy

Debunking Vitamin A Myths During Pregnancy

Hello Radical Health Seekers,

Since sharing Melanie's pregnancy journey in Friday’s newsletter, lots of you have been asking about taking our supplements during pregnancy, and whether you should be concerned about eating liver because of Vitamin A…

Well we’re going to address all in this week’s newsletter, including:

• Is it safe for pregnant women to take our supplements?

• Should you be concerned about getting too much Vitamin A from liver or our supplements?

• Why the RDA for Vitamin A is flawed, and why 10x the amount is probably better for you and your baby to thrive…

Heads up, we might get technical at times, but this is a nuanced and important subject that requires it 🤓

First up…

Is it safe to take our products while pregnant?

The answer is yes! ✅👌

While we can’t give specific medical advice for expecting mothers, thousands of women have found our supplements to be very beneficial before, during and after pregnancy…

And it’s important to remember that although we call them supplements and they come in a capsule…our products are still just real food!

They undergo the strictest quality control procedures for safety and contamination… in fact we can reassure you that they are more rigorously tested than any food you'll find in a grocery store or restaurant!

But doesn't liver have too much Vitamin A?

Expecting moms are told to avoid liver because it’s high in Vitamin A, which is believed to increase the risk of birth defects…\xa0

But this belief is based on poor science which we will detail in this newsletter.The key point is that eating reasonable amounts of liver during pregnancy (whether fresh or in our products) will not deliver excess amounts of Vitamin A to cause concern…

And is in fact the best way to ensure sufficient Vitamin A and other micronutrients so that mom and baby can THRIVE 🤗

You need Vitamin A for a healthy pregnancy

One of the reasons Vitamin A is so important during pregnancy is because of its role in cell differentiation…

That’s theprocesswhere stem cells transform into differentiated cells like heart cells, bone cells, and brain cells...\xa0

And for this differentiation to occur, Vitamin A needs to be available in sufficient quantity, and in the proper form (retinol).

Liver is one of the best (if not THE best) sources of Vitamin A for both the quality and quantity of Vitamin A in it.

The Vitamin A in liver comes in the super bioavailable retinol form that our bodies expect…

And if you thought you could get Vitamin A from carrots, think again…

Because carrots and other plant foods like sweet potatoes don’t contain true Vitamin A.

Instead, they have a precursor called beta-carotene, and it’s an inferior form of Vitamin A.

Because not only must your body convert it from beta-carotene to vitamin A, but the conversion factor is poor,ranging from 3% to 10%.\xa0

Yet mainstream nutritional advice fails to make this important distinction…

And still recommends pregnant women (and everyone else) get their vitamin A from vegetables (or synthetic supplements) instead of real bioavailable sources like beef liver 😩

Okay so now that we’ve covered the whys and wheres of Vitamin A, let’s look athow muchpregnant moms should be getting…

How much liver to meet your RDA requirements?

The\xa0official RDA(recommended daily allowance) of Vitamin A for women during pregnancy is approximately2500 IU (international units).\xa0

And if you eat 3 oz of fresh liver once a week you will easily meet this RDA…

Because in that small palm size amount is about\xa022,000 IUof vitamin A, a daily equivalent of 3142 IU.

And how much Vitamin A is in our supplements?

This incredibly nourishing stack provides about 6300 IU of the highest quality Vitamin A to expecting moms each day…\xa0

And that’s not even to mention all of the other nutrients like Choline, Folate, Iron, B Vitamins and Essential Fatty Acids...\xa0

Yowza!!!

But is that not TOO much Vitamin A???\xa0🤔

No! See the thing about RDAs is they\xa0were originally created during World War 2 as a bare minimum to help soldiers avoid disease…

So while meeting your RDA will help you avoid a deficiency disease, it isn’t enough for you and your growing baby to thrive.

And we aren’t soldiers looking to avoid a deficiency disease, we are moms looking to grow healthy babies!!!

In fact, we believe somewhere in the region of 10x the RDA may be a more optimal amount to shoot for (we’ll show you why)...

But what about too much Vitamin A causing birth defects?

Buckle up Betty, this gets technical 🤓

The worries about Vitamin A causing an increased risk of birth defects comes from a 1995\xa0studywhere nearly 23,000 women got 10,000 IU+ of Vitamin A from supplements or processed foods during their first trimester and an increase in birth defects was observed…\xa0

But there were multiple flaws with the study (which you can read about\xa0here)...

And the biggest problem was that it ignored the multiple studies that contradicted it:

Contradictory Study #1

This 1990studyfound that among 25,000 births, doses of vitamin A over 40,000 IU per day carried a 2.7-fold higher risk of birth defects, but doses of vitamin A up to 20,000 IU or between 20,000 and 40,000 IU both carried a 50 percent lower risk of birth defects compared to no supplementation at all…

Contradictory Study #2

This 1996studyof 522,601 births found that the children of women supplementing with at least 10,000 IU of vitamin A in addition to a multivitamin had a lower risk of birth defects than those of women who did not supplement, although the association could not be distinguished from the effect of chance…

Contradictory Study #3

This 1997studyof 1,508 births found no relationship between birth defects and use of vitamin A supplements, fortified breakfast cereals, organ meats or liver.

Contradictory Study #4

This 1999 prospectivestudyof 311 mothers who consumed between 10,000 and 300,000 IU of vitamin A in the first trimester and a similarly sized group that did not supplement with vitamin A found no evidence of an increased risk of major malformations with increasing dose. The median dose was 50,000 IU. The group as a whole had a 50 percent lower risk of major malformations than those who did not supplement, and there were no major malformations in offspring born to mothers consuming more than 50,000 IU.

So yes, too much Vitamin A might be a problem (or might not based on those studies)...

But not enough Vitamin A is definitely a problem.\xa0

And taking all the evidence into account, we believe 10,000 - 20,000 IU of vitamin A during pregnancy is not only probably safe, but is going to lead to positive outcomes for fertility, conception, and the healthy development of mother and child.

We’re going to wrap this one up now, but before we do, here are some further resources on this topic:

Upcoming Heart & Soil Community Webcast:

Fertility & Conception - Thursday March 28th at 7pm CT
>> Register Here

Recommended Reading:

\xa0Pregnancy and Organ Supplements (Are They Safe?)

Recommended Viewing:\xa0

Nourished - Nutritional Wisdom For A Healthy Pregnancy

Recommended Listening:\xa0

Radical Health Radio: Heal Fertility and Prepare for Motherhood ft. Kaely McDevitt | Ep. 52

Recommended Products:

OurPrenatal Health Stack:\xa0

Besides plenty of Vitamin A, this stack is jam-packed with other nutrients like iron, essential fatty acids, Choline and Folate to help you and your baby THRIVE.

We hope you found the information in this week’s newsletter useful, and please pass it on to any expecting moms you think it can help…

And if you have any further questions you can reply to us right here!

The Heart & Soil Team

Medical Disclaimer: Nothing in this email should be considered as medical advice. Please always consult with your doctor.