Vitamin A Foods: Best Sources (Plus Vitamin D)

Beef liver, sweet potato, spinach and carrots are the richest everyday vitamin A foods: one baked sweet potato gives 1,403 mcg RAE, or 156% of the Daily Value¹. For vitamins A and D together, cod liver oil is the only rich source, while liver, fortified milk, eggs and salmon supply some of each^{1, 2, 3}.

Adults need 900 mcg RAE of vitamin A a day (men) or 700 mcg RAE (women)¹. For dosing and the evidence on supplements, see our vitamin A evidence page.

Liver is in a class of its own, and orange and dark green vegetables come next. These are the amounts per normal serving from the NIH table, with % of the 900 mcg RAE Daily Value¹:

• Beef liver, pan-fried, 3 oz: 6,582 mcg RAE (731% DV)
• Sweet potato, baked in skin, 1 whole: 1,403 mcg RAE (156% DV)
• Spinach, frozen, boiled, ½ cup: 573 mcg RAE (64% DV)
• Pumpkin pie, 1 piece: 488 mcg RAE (54% DV)
• Carrots, raw, ½ cup: 459 mcg RAE (51% DV)
• Pickled herring, 3 oz: 219 mcg RAE (24% DV)
• Soft-serve ice cream, ⅔ cup: 185 mcg RAE (21% DV)
• Skim milk with added vitamins A and D, 1 cup: 149 mcg RAE (17% DV)
• Cantaloupe, raw, ½ cup: 135 mcg RAE (15% DV)
• Ricotta cheese, part skim, ½ cup: 133 mcg RAE (15% DV)
• Red bell peppers, raw, ½ cup: 117 mcg RAE (13% DV)
• Mango, raw, 1 whole: 112 mcg RAE (12% DV)
• Egg, hard-boiled, 1 large: 75 mcg RAE (8% DV)
• Broccoli, boiled, ½ cup: 60 mcg RAE (7% DV)
• Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 oz: 59 mcg RAE (7% DV)

The animal foods on this list carry preformed vitamin A (retinol), while the plant foods carry provitamin A carotenoids such as beta-carotene that the body converts¹. Two eggs add up to 150 mcg RAE, about 17% of the Daily Value, while chicken breast (5 mcg RAE) and pistachios (4 mcg RAE) barely register¹.

How much you need depends on age and sex¹:

• Men 14 and older: 900 mcg RAE a day
• Women 14 and older: 700 mcg RAE a day
• Pregnancy (19-50): 770 mcg RAE a day
• Breastfeeding (19-50): 1,300 mcg RAE a day
• Children 4-8: 400 mcg RAE a day

In the US, the average man gets 682 mcg RAE a day from food and the average woman 616 mcg RAE (2017-2018 survey data)¹. In the US and other high-income countries, 65% to 80% of vitamin A comes as preformed vitamin A from animal and fortified foods¹.

Cod liver oil is the only common food rich in both; the others supply plenty of one and a little of the other. Per serving, using NIH and USDA values^{1, 2, 3}:

• Cod liver oil, 1 teaspoon (4.5 g): about 1,350 mcg RAE vitamin A and 11 mcg (450 IU) vitamin D, calculated from USDA's 30,000 mcg RAE and 250 mcg vitamin D per 100 g³
• Cod liver oil, 1 tablespoon: about 4,080 mcg RAE vitamin A and 34 mcg (1,360 IU) vitamin D, 170% of the vitamin D Daily Value^{3, 2}
• Beef liver, 3 oz: 6,582 mcg RAE vitamin A but only 1.0 mcg (42 IU) vitamin D^{1, 2}
• Fortified milk, 1 cup: 149 mcg RAE vitamin A (skim) and 2.9 mcg (120 IU) vitamin D (2%)^{1, 2}
• Sockeye salmon, 3 oz cooked: 59 mcg RAE vitamin A and 14.2 mcg (570 IU) vitamin D^{1, 2}
• Egg, 1 large: 75 mcg RAE vitamin A and 1.1 mcg (44 IU) vitamin D^{1, 2}
• Fortified breakfast cereal, 1 serving: often 10% of the Daily Value for each, so 90 mcg RAE and 2.0 mcg vitamin D^{1, 2}

Fatty fish such as trout and salmon are the best natural vitamin D foods, while most of the vitamin D Americans eat comes from fortified foods². Our guide to vitamin D foods ranks the full list, and the vitamin D evidence page covers supplements.

The cod liver oil numbers matter for safety: a single tablespoon already sits above the 3,000 mcg upper limit for preformed vitamin A in adults^{3, 1}. For an adult who wants it mainly for vitamin D, a teaspoon stays well under that limit. Children are different: a teaspoon (about 1,350 mcg) is more than twice the 600 mcg limit for children under 4 and above the 900 mcg limit at ages 4-8, and a serving of liver is far above both^{1, 3}.

Which foods are high in vitamin A and C?

Red peppers, cantaloupe and broccoli give useful amounts of both. Per serving, from the NIH vitamin A and vitamin C tables^{1, 4}:

• Red bell pepper, raw, ½ cup: 117 mcg RAE vitamin A (13% DV) and 95 mg vitamin C (106% DV)
• Cantaloupe, ½ cup: 135 mcg RAE (15% DV) and 29 mg vitamin C (32% DV)
• Broccoli, cooked, ½ cup: 60 mcg RAE (7% DV) and 51 mg vitamin C (57% DV)
• Tomato juice, ¾ cup: 42 mcg RAE (5% DV) and 33 mg vitamin C (37% DV)
• Spinach, cooked, ½ cup: 573 mcg RAE (64% DV) and 9 mg vitamin C (10% DV)

Not gram for gram. The official conversion counts 12 mcg of beta-carotene from food as 1 mcg of vitamin A, because the body absorbs 75% to 100% of retinol but usually only 10% to 30% of beta-carotene from food¹. That is what the "RAE" (retinol activity equivalents) unit adjusts for.

The 12:1 figure is an average. A review of human stable-isotope studies found conversion ratios from 3.6:1 to 28:1 by weight, varying between studies and between people in the same study⁵. A second review put beta-carotene absorption from plants at 5% to 65%, and found vegetables with tough food matrices converted at 10:1 to 28:1⁶.

Genes explain part of it. In female volunteers, carriers of common variants of the BCMO1 gene, which makes the enzyme that splits beta-carotene, showed 32% to 69% lower markers of conversion after a test dose⁷. If you eat no animal foods, all of your vitamin A depends on this conversion, so aim above the RDA from plants rather than at it.

For what the supplement form does and doesn't do, see the beta-carotene evidence page.

Orange and dark green vegetables beat any fruit. A single baked sweet potato provides twice a woman's RDA¹, and that figure already applies the 12:1 conversion, so it is not inflated.

Among fruits in the NIH table, half a cup of cantaloupe gives 135 mcg RAE, a whole mango 112 mcg RAE and 5 dried apricots 63 mcg RAE¹. Half a cup of raw carrots gives 459 mcg RAE, more than 3 times the cantaloupe¹.

Eat a mix of orange and green vegetables, eggs and dairy, and cook the vegetables with some fat. Heat breaks down plant cell walls, and the NIH notes that cooking can raise beta-carotene's bioavailability¹.

• Cook or puree carrots: in 8 volunteers with ileostomies who ate the carrots with added oil, 65% of beta-carotene was absorbed from cooked, pureed carrots versus 41% from raw chopped carrots⁸.
• Add fat: when 7 adults ate the same salad of spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots, carotenoid absorption was negligible with fat-free dressing and highest with dressing containing 28 g of oil⁹.
• Don't chase it daily: most of the body's vitamin A is stored in the liver, so intake can vary from day to day¹.

Vitamin A is fat soluble, which is why fat matters; our explainer on fat-soluble vs water-soluble vitamins covers storage and absorption in more detail.

Yes, but only from preformed vitamin A, and mainly from liver, cod liver oil and supplements. The tolerable upper intake level (UL) for preformed vitamin A is 3,000 mcg a day for adults, counting food and supplements together¹. A 3 oz serving of beef liver (6,582 mcg RAE) is more than twice that¹.

The UL is lower for children¹:

• Under 4 years: 600 mcg a day
• 4-8 years: 900 mcg a day
• 9-13 years: 1,700 mcg a day
• 14-18 years: 2,800 mcg a day

Beta-carotene has no UL. Eating a lot of it can turn the skin yellow-orange (carotenodermia), which is harmless and fades when intake drops¹.

Pregnancy

In a cohort of 22,748 pregnant women, those taking more than 10,000 IU (3,000 mcg) of preformed vitamin A a day from supplements had 4.8 times the rate of cranial-neural-crest birth defects seen with 5,000 IU or less¹⁰. The authors estimated that about 1 baby in 57 in that group had a malformation caused by the supplement¹⁰. The risk was concentrated in intake before the 7th week of pregnancy¹⁰.

The NHS advises avoiding liver and liver products during pregnancy because of their vitamin A content¹¹. US experts advise pregnant and breastfeeding women not to take vitamin A supplements above 3,000 mcg RAE a day, and the upper limit of 3,000 mcg (2,800 mcg under age 19) counts preformed vitamin A from food and supplements together¹. Beta-carotene is not known to cause birth defects¹. More on supplements in pregnancy is in our fertility and pregnancy hub.

Bones

In 72,337 postmenopausal nurses followed for 18 years, a retinol intake of 2,000 mcg a day or more was linked to 1.89 times the hip fracture risk of under 500 mcg¹². A 2014 meta-analysis of 8 prospective studies of vitamin A intake (283,930 people) found high retinol intake was associated with a 40% higher hip fracture risk, while beta-carotene intake was not¹³. These are observational links, not proof, but they favour getting most of your vitamin A from plants if you have osteoporosis.

Smokers and beta-carotene supplements

Food beta-carotene is not the issue; high-dose pills are. In 29,133 male smokers, 20 mg a day of beta-carotene for 5-8 years raised lung cancer incidence by 18%¹⁴. In 18,314 smokers and asbestos workers, 30 mg beta-carotene plus 25,000 IU retinol raised lung cancer risk by 28% and was stopped early¹⁵.

Most people in high-income countries do not: fewer than 1% of Americans have low blood retinol¹. Deficiency is still common worldwide, affecting 29% of young children in 138 low- and middle-income countries in 2013¹.

The groups most likely to fall short in high-income countries, according to the NIH¹:

• Cystic fibrosis: up to 90% have pancreatic insufficiency, which impairs fat absorption, so standard care includes daily vitamin A.
• Inflammatory bowel disease: about one quarter of children with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis are deficient.
• Celiac disease: some newly diagnosed people are deficient, and a gluten-free diet does not always correct it.
• Premature infants: they are born with low liver stores.

Anything that blocks fat absorption also blocks vitamin A, which is why malabsorption is the common thread. The weight-loss drug orlistat lowers absorption of vitamin A and beta-carotene, and prescription retinoids such as acitretin raise the risk of toxicity if combined with vitamin A supplements¹.

The first sign is usually night blindness, trouble seeing in dim light¹. It can progress to xerophthalmia, damage to the cornea that can cause permanent blindness, and deficiency also makes infections such as measles and diarrhea more severe¹.

The eyes are the organ most affected. Vitamin A is part of rhodopsin, the light-sensitive protein in the retina, and deficiency is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in children¹. Our page on vitamin A for eye health covers what supplements do and don't do for vision.

Worldwide, the toll is large: in 2013, vitamin A deficiency was blamed for 94,500 child deaths from diarrhea and 11,200 from measles in low- and middle-income countries¹. Blood tests can mislead, because blood retinol stays normal until liver stores are almost empty¹.

Food first; the NIH advises meeting needs mainly through diet, including fortified foods¹. Supplements use retinyl acetate or palmitate (preformed) or beta-carotene, and 3,000 mcg RAE per pill is common, while multivitamins often hold 750 to 1,050 mcg RAE¹.

• Beta-carotene: not linked to birth defects or hip fracture^{1, 13}, but smokers should avoid high doses^{14, 15}.
• Retinyl esters: absorbed at 70% to 90%, but they count fully toward the 3,000 mcg upper limit¹.

If you take supplements for macular degeneration, the AREDS2 trial found the formula worked as well without beta-carotene, and current formulas use lutein and zeaxanthin instead¹. See beta-carotene for macular degeneration for the trial data.

You can reach 900 mcg RAE with ordinary foods and no liver. Two examples built from the NIH table¹:

Mixed diet, about 935 mcg RAE (104% DV)¹:

• Breakfast: 1 hard-boiled egg (75 mcg RAE) and 1 cup fortified skim milk (149 mcg RAE)¹
• Lunch: ½ cup raw carrots (459 mcg RAE) and ½ cup raw red pepper (117 mcg RAE), with a dressing that contains oil¹
• Snack: ½ cup cantaloupe (135 mcg RAE)¹

Plant-only option, two servings that reach about 1,032 mcg RAE (115% DV)¹:

• Serving 1: ½ cup boiled spinach (573 mcg RAE) cooked in a little oil¹
• Serving 2: ½ cup raw carrots (459 mcg RAE)¹

Or simply eat one baked sweet potato (1,403 mcg RAE) a few times a week¹. If you rely on plants only, build in a margin, since conversion varies from person to person⁵. For when to take a supplement if you use one, see when to take vitamins.

Supplements in this guide

• Vitamin A
• Beta-Carotene
• Vitamin D
• Beef Liver
• Lutein

We searched PubMed for human studies on beta-carotene conversion, carotenoid absorption, and the safety of preformed vitamin A in pregnancy, bone health and smokers, and read the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements fact sheets for vitamins A, D and C, a USDA FoodData Central entry and NHS pregnancy guidance. We read 11 study abstracts and cited 10, favouring meta-analyses, randomised trials and large cohorts.

Food values come from the NIH tables, which draw on USDA data; real foods vary with variety, storage and cooking. The bone findings are observational, and beta-carotene conversion differs widely between people, so plant-only figures are averages. Researched and written in October 2026.

1. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin A and Carotenoids: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/
2. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin D: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
3. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy: Fish oil, cod liver (FDC ID 173577). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/173577/nutrients
4. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin C: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/
5. Tang G. Bioconversion of dietary provitamin A carotenoids to vitamin A in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010;91(5):1468S-1473S. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2010.28674G
6. Haskell MJ. The challenge to reach nutritional adequacy for vitamin A: β-carotene bioavailability and conversion--evidence in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;96(5):1193S-203S. doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.034850
7. Leung WC, et al. Two common single nucleotide polymorphisms in the gene encoding beta-carotene 15,15'-monoxygenase alter beta-carotene metabolism in female volunteers. FASEB J. 2009;23(4):1041-53. doi:10.1096/fj.08-121962
8. Livny O, et al. Beta-carotene bioavailability from differently processed carrot meals in human ileostomy volunteers. Eur J Nutr. 2003;42(6):338-45. doi:10.1007/s00394-003-0430-6
9. Brown MJ, et al. Carotenoid bioavailability is higher from salads ingested with full-fat than with fat-reduced salad dressings as measured with electrochemical detection. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004;80(2):396-403. doi:10.1093/ajcn/80.2.396
10. Rothman KJ, et al. Teratogenicity of high vitamin A intake. N Engl J Med. 1995;333(21):1369-73. doi:10.1056/NEJM199511233332101 Our study summary.
11. NHS. Foods to avoid in pregnancy. https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/keeping-well/foods-to-avoid/
12. Feskanich D, et al. Vitamin A intake and hip fractures among postmenopausal women. JAMA. 2002;287(1):47-54. doi:10.1001/jama.287.1.47
13. Wu AM, et al. The relationship between vitamin A and risk of fracture: meta-analysis of prospective studies. J Bone Miner Res. 2014;29(9):2032-9. doi:10.1002/jbmr.2237
14. Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. N Engl J Med. 1994;330(15):1029-35. doi:10.1056/NEJM199404143301501 Our study summary.
15. Omenn GS, et al. Effects of a combination of beta carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med. 1996;334(18):1150-5. doi:10.1056/NEJM199605023341802 Our study summary.