Um...did I just poison myself

I just realized that i ate 1200% of my daily amount of vitamin A in one sitting on top of 200% for the day (darn you sweet potato). Am I going to be ok? I ate it with some peanut butter, so it can be absorbed because it's fat soluble, I"m just wondering if I should do something or tell someone.  

Excess vitamins are excreted in your urine. You'll be ok.

from http://www.tld.net/users/robertop/RDAs.htm

The RDA for vitamin A is 5000 IU. This amount of vitamin A is a safe level,.... Vitamin A can be toxic at 15,000 to 20,000 IU per day,

and from http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/govtregulatio n/a/VitaminAToxic.htm

The upper limit for retinol [vitamin A] is 3000 mcg (10000) IU per day.

Original Post by cellophane_star:

Excess vitamins are excreted in your urine. You'll be ok.

AFAIK... Water soluble - yes.

Fat soluble - no.

ETA:

from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.as p?articlekey=10736

Fat soluble vitamins, once they have been stored in tissues in the body, tend to remain there. This means that if a person takes in too much of a fat soluble vitamin, over time they can have too much of that vitamin present in their body, a potentially dangerous condition called hypervitaminosis (literally, too much vitamin in the body).

Only water soluble ones are excreted in your urine; beowulf is right to carry some concern about high intake of fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A.  1200% is high, but shouldn't be detrimental as long as it's not a daily thing and you don't have other health issues. That said, over consumption of vitamin A can have long term health effects (like reduced bone density, among other things).

If you're concerned, talk to your doctor about it.

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

Original Post by cellophane_star:

Excess vitamins are excreted in your urine. You'll be ok.

AFAIK... Water soluble - yes.

Fat soluble - no.

 

ETA:

from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.as p?articlekey=10736

Fat soluble vitamins, once they have been stored in tissues in the body, tend to remain there. This means that if a person takes in too much of a fat soluble vitamin, over time they can have too much of that vitamin present in their body, a potentially dangerous condition called hypervitaminosis (literally, too much vitamin in the body).

I stand corrected!. Also, I had to Google what "AFAIK" meant.

:) Its why I take my B vitamins separately, because I take way more than the RDA of those.

Nope! You will be fine. Promise. No need to "tell someone about it". :) 

But, just out of curiosity, what did you eat in one sitting to obtain that amount of Vit A??

I has a similar worry not long ago. I often go upwards of 500% of my vitamin A on CC because I eat a lot of carrots and other veggies.

So I found out that CC lumps beta carotene from veggies (carrots , sweet potato, other veggies) with the retinol form of Vitamin A (eggs, meat, especially liver).

It's my understanding that it's the retinol form you should be worring about going over because it's more readily used by your body compared to beta carotene --so just don't eat too much liver!

yep li li... according to one of those sites I posted, retinol is the worrysome one, but beta carotene is OK in higher doses because it only converts if it has to or something. I don't remember the details...

vitamin A from veggies is beta carotene  (your body converts it to Vitamin A, it is what makes carrots etc.. orange) which is water soluble you'll be fine, if you do it several days in a row, you may have orangish skin for few days.

Vitamin A from animal sources is fat souluble and can be toxic at high doses, but this form is very hard to overdue from diet alone, unless you are really gorging or taking lots of cod liver oil or other vitamin A supplements ( or suddenly had a bizarre craving for polar bear liver)

translation. odd are highly in favor that you will be just fine

Also, I had to Google what "AFAIK" meant.

:), Thanks God for Google, AFAIK, IMHO, ASAP, and lots others, sometimes need to be googled.

Hey, thanks guys. I"m fine, and never had a problem, except I"m a little more orange than normal (people have been asking me how I got a sunburn). Oh and how i got that much? A 1 lb sweet potato before a Tae Kwon Do tournament .