What Is Vitamin A In International Units?

Vitamin A is the name of a group of fat-soluble retinoids. Two forms of vitamin A are available in the human diet: preformed vitamin A and provitamin A carotenoids.

Vitamin A is found naturally in many foods. It can also be added to fortified foods.

Getting too much-preformed vitamin A, the form found in supplements, over a prolonged period can lead to toxicity. Supplementation should only be used periodically.

Toxicity from food sources is rare.

Vitamin A Is An Essential

Vitamin A is not just one vitamin. It is the name of a group of fat-soluble retinoids, like retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters.(source 🗗)

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that cannot synthesize in the body. Therefore it must be obtained through diet. (source 🗗)

What is IU?

IU stands for International Units. It’s a unit of measurement for vitamins and other specific substances. It is commonly used to measure fat-soluble vitamins, like Vitamin A, D, and E.

Vitamins are measured in milligrams, micrograms, or international units. Milligrams and micrograms show the amount of mass in a sample. But international units show the level of biological activity of the substance.(source 🗗)

For unit conversion, the formula is:

To convert Vitamin A as retinol:

From IU to mcg: IU * 0.3 = mcg

Example: 5000 IU * 0.3 = 1500 mcg

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