Anon 102 Wrote:
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> Sprouter always bad talks fruit yet he eats it.
> Wtf! Then he runs here quickly to let us know how
> fruit did him irreparable damage, lol. That's like
> him using a prostitute and then denugrating her
> afterwards. Lol



*denigrating



using a phone sucks sometime.

Quote

> beta carotene is extremely easy to get on a
> fruit/veg diet.


It depends.

It is interesting how Brian Clement claims he tested people on N.H diets and 50% came up deficient in vitamin A levels. The study above certainly shows it can be a problem if one is not diligent.

There is a large difference between beta carotene and vitamin A. Beta carotene is found abundantly in many fruits and vegetables but as it is a fat-soluble vitamin it is possible that people eating lots of beta carotene on a very low fat diet could still come up deficient.

But beta carotene is child's play for vegans to get compared to vitamin A, which is only found in animal foods. The body can convert beta carotene into vitamin A in sufficient amounts under optimal conditions, but even under optimal conditions it takes many units of beta carotene to produce one unit of vitamin A. However, many people on a hclf raw vegan diet would have anything but optimal conditions for conversion. The main hindrance to converting carotenes to vitamin A is lack of fat in the diet. Another hindrance is zinc deficiency. Sound familiar? Various salts and substances in the bile are essential for the absorption and conversion of carotenoids into vitamin A, but bile is only secreted in adequate amounts if there is a good source of fat with the meal.

It should be noted that whereas beta carotene plays many useful roles in the body, it is not an essential nutrient (this plays into what Sproutarian was saying about how many of the photochemicals play the same role in the body). Vitamin A absolutely is.

This post is very limited in scope and does a poor job of explaining how important vitamin A is and how you are likely to become deficient on a very low fat diet, but hopefully it is enough to get people to do their own research into the matter.

can you define very low fat?

fresh Wrote:
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> can you define very low fat?


That is another interesting discussion Fresh. From my understanding very low fat (8% or less) will cause major problems with conversion, but diets consisting of 10% are not so dicey in terms of helping beta carotene conversion when certain combinations are had such as kale with a few slices of avocado. But as l said, on low fat diets 10 - 15% certain strategies must be employed to make it work well, but even then there can be other problems such as low omega 3's in people prone to stress, or low cholesterol and possible hormonal problems (maybe). Lower fat can be done well for some people, but it can also be poorly done.