But it is not a sustainable solution to vitamin A deficiency.

1. Micronutrient supplements for children (vitamin A and zinc)

Opponents maintain that there are better ways to deal with vitamin A deficiency.

Over those 12 years, about eight million children worldwide died from vitamin A deficiency.

The 4.4 million Filipino kids with vitamin A deficiency might not mind so much.

To be sure, handing out vitamin pills or adding vitamin A to staple products can make a difference.

For example, recent data show that even a moderate deficiency of Vitamin A results in higher mortality.

But it is not a sustainable solution to vitamin A deficiency. And, while it is cost effective, recent published estimates indicate that golden rice is much more so.

Most physicians in North America and Europe never see a single case of vitamin A deficiency in their professional lifetimes.

Both are great deals. But golden rice would cost just 100 for every life saved from vitamin A deficiency.

Every year, about 500,000 children become blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency, and 70 die within a year of losing their sight.

Greenpeace calls golden rice a failure, because it has been in development for almost 20 years and has still not made any impact on the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency.

Providing Vitamin A for a year costs as little as 1.20 per child, while providing Zinc costs as little as 1.00.

A study from the British medical journal The Lancet estimates that, in total, vitamin A deficiency kills 668,000 children under the age of five each year.

UNRWA also participated in a measles and vitamin A campaign, launched in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, during which 85,000 children below five years of age were vaccinated.

Some, such as vitamin D, have hormone like functions as regulators of mineral metabolism, or regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation (such as some forms of vitamin A).

Vitamin (B12) as a factor to cure the liver cancer (Not published).

Dark skinned people may be less efficient at making vitamin D because melanin in the skin hinders vitamin D synthesis however, a recent study has found novel evidence that low vitamin D levels among Africans may be due to other reasons.

Providing Vitamin A and zinc to 80 of the 140 million or so undernourished children in the world would require a commitment of just 60 million annually.

For example, vitamin A drops which provide infants with an essential micronutrient for vision and healthy growth are now delivered twice yearly in conjunction with polio vaccines.

Monitors won't give you Vitamin D but sunlight will...

Others function as antioxidants (e.g., vitamin E and sometimes vitamin C).

Physiology Factor X is synthesized in the liver and requires vitamin K for its synthesis.

By contrast, 10 spent on Vitamin A supplements would achieve more than 170 of benefits in health and long term prosperity.

In developing countries, 200 300 million children of preschool age are at risk of vitamin A deficiency, which can be devastating and even fatal.

In general, supplements containing all eight are referred to as a vitamin B complex.

For example, green vegetables typically contain vitamin A, dark orange and dark green vegetables contain vitamin C, and vegetables like broccoli and related plants contain iron and calcium.

Two recent studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition show that just 50 grams (roughly two ounces) of golden rice can provide 60 of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A. They show that golden rice is even better than spinach in providing vitamin A to children.

It's very destructive, but it also catalyzes the production of vitamin D in the skin, vitamin D being a molecule that we very much need for our strong bones, the health of our immune system, and myriad other important functions in our bodies.

For example, recent data show that even a moderate deficiency of Vitamin A results in higher mortality. In fact, we could avoid the death of at least one million children every year by improving their intake of it.

Pregnant or breastfeeding women should consult a doctor before taking a vitamin D supplement.

More than two thirds of children in least developed countries received vitamin A supplements.

Three billion people depend on rice as their staple food, with 10 at risk for vitamin A deficiency, which, according to the World Health Organization, causes 250,000 500,000 children to go blind each year.

B12 that is to be used in these supplements is typically grown from vegan sources (such as bacteria).

Vitamin D The human body can synthesize vitamin D when skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

UNICEF helped to mount extensive campaigns to immunize children against measles and provide vitamin A.

We concluded that there would be high benefits from providing micronutrients particularly vitamin A and zinc to undernourished children in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa.

Yet, despite the cost in human lives, anti GM campaigners from Greenpeace to Naomi Klein have derided efforts to use golden rice to avoid vitamin A deficiency.

Within about 20 minutes of ultraviolet exposure in light skinned individuals (three to six times longer for pigmented skin), the concentrations of vitamin D precursors produced in the skin reach an equilibrium, and any further vitamin D produced is degraded.

The New York Times Magazinereported in 2001 that one would need to eat 15 pounds of cooked golden rice a day to get enough vitamin A. What was an exaggeration then is demonstrably wrong now.

Palmitate is attached to the alcohol form of vitamin A, retinol, to make vitamin A stable in milk.

The result of the assay was that the liver of the burbot has three to four times the potency in vitamin D, and four to 10 times in vitamin A, than good grades of cod liver oil.

Despite the phasing down of National Immunization Days, vitamin A supplementation coverage remained steady.

UNICEF also ensured that vitamin A was available in the affected areas, as well as in Kenya and the Darfur region of Sudan.

True to form, Greenpeace is already protesting that the next golden rice guinea pigs might be Filipino children.