How accurate is Myfitnesspal on nutrition and vitamin RDAs?

[EauRouge]

I've only just started using it. I'm not really restricting my diet that much, but trying to cut down on sugar and refined carbs so this is a good way to track. I've been doing it for 4 days now and on 2 of those days I have apparently eaten more than double the amount of vitamin A I need.

I've done a bit of googling and can't figure out what I'm eating that's got so much vitamin A in it. I know there are health risks associated with too much vitamin A for pregnant women, is it the same for everyone else?

Also, MFP seems to think my diet is woefully low in iron, vit C and calcium. I thought I ate a pretty varied diet but I'm feeling a bit crap about it now!

Does anyone know how accurate it is? Should I be worried that it says I've had almost 300% of the RDA of vitamin A? It's not like I've been scarfing down tons of pate.

According the the nhs website, women should eat 0.7mg of vitamin A a day. It says if you eat too much over a long period of time it can make you more likely to have brittle bones when you're older, but when I've queried other vitamins with my GP they've always said as long as I'm not taking a supplement on top not to worry.

Vitamin A is only harmful during pregnancy in its animal form, vit a from fruit and veg is fine.

Thanks, I feel better now. I still can't figure out what it is, I've googled foods high in vitamin A and I haven't been eating any of them.

Does the printable detailed report thing not tell you where the vitamin A is coming from?

No, it just has sugars, carbs, fat and protein. The vitamins and minerals report is a daily thing and doesn't contain any details, so it's a mystery! The only thing I can do is look up the food individually. From what I can tell so far, it's something I eat nearly every day.

Ok I've been fiddling around on mine, if you go into 'settings' you can choose nutrients tracked. You can choose to track vitamin A. Then it will come up on the main page of your diary with the percentage of rda that each food is.

Aha, thank you! It seems carrots and spinach are the main offenders, although I thought I was eating very normal amounts. But since it's coming from plants and not animals I shall stop worrying. Thank you for your help :)