I read (in an blog that doesn't deserve quoting because it won't let me copy a single PHRASE to paste here) that in the FASEB Journal there was an article about retinol's role in ATP production. AHA! Then a short paddle around the PubMed pool revealed another wealth of information -- the author has done a LOT of work on mitochondria, our favorite organelle! ...Okay, okay -- they're ALL important....
It's going to take awhile to read and digest this information, but the starting-point is here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19812372 and the takeaway is this -- low retinol results in bare-minimal energy.
I also googled the factoid that 45% of people don't convert carotenes to retino's adequately; all in one place i got the (uncited) number i was looking for, PLUS material for thought.
Some people may not absorb adequate carotenes from the diet due to digestive problems and some people, even those with adequate thyroid activity, seem to have some difficulty converting the carotenes to the active form of vitamin A. In one study, up to 47% of British women were unable to adequately convert beta-carotene to vitamin A. The problem may be even worse in some populations.*Am i the only one who goes on point (the hunter-bitch that i am) at the notion that SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST NOT DESIGNED TO LIVE ON AN ANIMAL-FREE DIET? Some people do not convert this ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL nutrient from the form in which it's offered in the modern diet! Every time i see the title "foods that provide vitamin A" followed by a list of friggin' VEGETABLES (which have NO retinol content) i want to erupt.
But no time to read today! I'm teaching a class in tatting to a couple of dozen ladies at the Chatillon-de Menil House tonight, and i still need to print my hand-outs and collect my examples. :-) Later!!!
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* see, i LOVE to give credit where it's due! it's the writers who are so friggin' scared that somebody's gonna STEEEEEAL their work that they make it really difficult to quote them AT ALL.... oh well -- this quote is from www.drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/VITAMIN%20A.htm
Good for you - liver is brilliant! Coincidentally, I have just (re-)discovered retinol supplementation. It is giving me so much energy, I have to take it in the morning if I want to sleep well. I know liver is better than supplements - I am going to try to eat more liver - but for now, I am v. pleased with the retinol & D3 capsules. I agree that some of us are just not built for a diet of plants.
ReplyDeletethanks, M! ...i'm so excited by all this! :-) in my belief, supplements are a great way to find out exactly what nutrients we need more of, and which are easier to absorb from single-ingredient form over the mixture which is "real food". whatever works, WORKS!
ReplyDelete"Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food" Hippocrates
ReplyDeleteRegards Eddie
amen to that! the state of the medical industry would be entirely different if he were in charge today, wouldn't it?
DeleteHi Tess, can't understand why you could not copy and paste from the www.drlwilson blog you refer to, I had no problem at all.
ReplyDeleteOh and I love fried liver!!
Cheers
Graham
hi, Graham! it wasn't Dr. Wilson's site that gave me a snarky comment when i tried to copy, it was nutraingredients.com -- oh drat, i wasn't going to mention it.... ;-)
DeleteThanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteif you ever get into immunology (which when you think you can grasp something takes you down the rabbithole and through the looking glass) you will find that retinol, as the precursor to all-trans retinoic acid, is essential for immune tolerance, Treg differentiation vs Th17, which is really the key to inflammation.
Suppversity has covered it a few times lately, but it's heady stuff. I've been studying it for 2 years now and still can't write a coherent blog post on it. I just know it's massively important.
yeah, it's no wonder to me nowadays that to be ANY kind of "expert" on some of these subjects, people HAVE to specialize! the complexity is just staggering now that things are becoming understood down at the molecular level!
Deletei need to dig around in the archives at Suppversity -- i've barely scratched the surface over there.
Yes on one web page all but one sourses of vit.A are red-colored veggies, but onether one sais "Preformed vitamin A is found only in animal sources and in dietary supplements.
ReplyDeleteBeta-carotene is found in many darkly colored fruits and vegetables."
It reminds me slightly of T3 and T4 situation.
Tess, like you felt good about eating liver, yerstarday I enjoyed how I felt after eating a good chunk of pressure-cooked beef heart. Probably it was the effect of Coenzyme Q10? I just quickly cut it in cubes with scissors while it was warm, mixed with good amount of a Kerrygold butter and some raw garlic.
it sure sounds like some nutrient in that heart was just what you needed! :-) i used to know a restaurant where one could go and get a bag-full of fried chicken hearts to snack on -- how wonderful it would be if one could find a paleo version of that!
DeleteDuring my vegetarian years, every once in awhile, I'd get a hankering for braunschweiger. I'd buy a package on vacation or something and eat the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteBut srsly, tatting? That doesn't sound paleo. Have you run that by paleohacks for final approval? Grokette didn't need no stinkin' doily, did she?
:-D but ... but ... Mark says play is important, and music too! we reenactors are a peculiar bunch, and what we call "play" is what other people call WEIRD. i used to have a period-correct canary who lived in a period-correct cage with period-correct (-looking) paper in the bottom. ...my mother just shook her head (she's all about the CW).
Deletehere's a connection; beta-hydroxybutyrate (ketone) promotes the degradation of retinol (as does alcohol). This looks like the starving body's way of telling the mitochondria to slow down.
ReplyDeleteIt may be the real reason for the metabolic slow-down some people get on low-carb; "low thyroid" might just be a reflection of it.
Inuit eat PLENTY of retinol.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00018-003-2290-x
ReplyDeleteVitamin A and the regulation of fat reserves
M. L. Bonet,
J. Ribot,
F. Felipe,
A. Palou
Abstract
Beyond their classical nutritional roles, nutrients modify gene expression and function in target cells and, by so doing, affect many fundamental biological processes. An emerging example, which is the focus of this review, is the involvement of vitamin A in the regulation of the level and functioning of body fat reserves. Retinoic acid, the carboxylic acid form of vitamin A, is a transcriptional activator of the genes encoding uncoupling proteins, and results in animals indicate that whole body thermogenic capacity is related to the vitamin A status. Retinoic acid also influences adipocyte differentiation and survival, with high doses inhibiting and low doses promoting adipogenesis of preadipose cells in culture. Moreover, vitamin A status can influence the development and function of adipose tissues in whole animals, with a low vitamin A status favouring increased fat deposition.
how VERY interesting your finds are! ...so when our intake of vA is under par, our bodies conclude that it's a time of scarcity of REAL food, and both slow down AND lay down more fat for the lean times to come! a confirmation, to ME, that high-retinol foods are the ones i should priorize in my diet!
Delete