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Top 5 Common Food Sources of Vitamin A
Looking to get more mcg of vitamin A in your diet? Look no further! My team and I have crunched the numbers and did all the math to determine the top 5 common food sources of this fat-soluble vitamin, per serving. Getting enough vitamin A as part of a healthy balanced diet is important since a large collection of studies show that getting nutrients from dietary supplements or multivitamins doesn’t improve health outcomes compared to getting nutrients from foods!
| Rank | Food | Nutrivore Score | Serving Size (Raw) | Vitamin A (µg RAE/serving) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liver, Average1 | 4192 | 3.5 oz / 100 g | 10696.8 | 1189 |
| 2 | Giblets, Average2 | 1319 | 3.5 oz / 100 g | 3400.4 | 378 |
| 3 | Eel, Mixed Species | 385 | 4 oz / 100 g | 1199.5 | 133 |
| 4 | Carrots | 899 | 1 cup | 1068.8 | 119 |
| 5 | Sweet Potato | 379 | 1 cup | 943.0 | 105 |
2Giblets, average includes chicken and turkey giblets.
Want to know more about this important vitamin including what vitamin A does in the body, how much vitamin A we need, what happens if we have low vitamin A levels or if we get too much, and even more awesome vitamin A rich foods? Keep reading to learn all there is to know!
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What Is Vitamin A and What Does It Do?
What we call vitamin A is actually a group of fat-soluble retinoids, including retinal, retinol, and retinyl esters; contrary to popular belief, beta-carotene is not true vitamin A, but rather, a dietary precursor with very inefficient conversion to active vitamin A.
The various forms of vitamin A help regulate the expression of over 500 genes involved in cell growth and differentiation, hormones, cytokines, growth factors, and lipid metabolism. This nutrient plays a particularly important role in immune function, where it helps immune cells proliferate, migrate, and mature into the correct cell type; it’s also needed for eye health, both for forming specialized photoreceptor cells in the eyes, and for maintaining the structural health of the eye itself (including the proper functioning of the cornea and conjunctival membranes).
Through its various functions in the body, vitamin A helps reduce the risk of infection, protects against night blindness and age-related macular degeneration, reduces the risk of autoimmune disease, helps maintain normal thyroid function, allows us to see in low-light situations, supports healthy reproductive function, maintains skin health, and allows for normal growth and development from the fetal years through childhood. Of course, while too little vitamin A is a serious problem (including lowering immune function and harming eye, thyroid, and reproductive health), chronic excess has its own set of risks—including interfering with vitamin D’s functions in the body, increasing the risk of birth defects, and causing a toxicity condition called hypervitaminosis A, which can eventually cause liver damage or coma.
Learn more about vitamin A here.
Vitamin A Deficiency
A 2011 study evaluated American’s usual nutrient intake including nutrients that are naturally-occurring in foods, from fortified and enriched foods, and from supplements. The results indicated that 80.1% of American adults usual diet falls short of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for vitamin A intake.
Groups At Risk
Those at higher risk of vitamin A deficiency include:
- individuals with poor lipid absorption, such as due to impaired pancreatic or bile secretion (e.g., from cystic fibrosis) or inflammatory bowel diseases (e.g., celiac disease or Crohn’s disease),
- people with certain genetic variations, particularly in the BCMO1 gene, which reduces the conversion of beta-carotene into active vitamin A (retinol), and
- pregnant and breastfeeding individuals.
Learn more here.
Symptoms of Deficiency
Vitamin A deficiency initially causes night blindness (nyctalopia) and can progress to xerophthalmia, characterized by dryness, wrinkling of the conjunctiva, and Bitot’s spots. Severe deficiency may lead to corneal damage, ulcers, scarring, and blindness, with a high mortality rate among affected children. Vitamin A deficiency also severely weakens the immune system, increasing infection risk.
Learn more here.
Problems From Too Much Vitamin A
Vitamin A toxicity, or hypervitaminosis A, can occur from excessive intake of animal-based vitamin A sources, though it’s rare with whole foods. Acute toxicity (e.g., consuming over 300,000 IU at once) causes symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and headaches, while chronic toxicity (e.g., 30,000+ IU daily for months) leads to issues like itchy skin, enlarged organs, anemia, and bone pain. Severe cases can result in liver damage, hemorrhaging, and coma. There’s some evidence that the elderly, people genetically predisposed to high cholesterol, and chronic alcohol users may be more likely to experience vitamin A toxicity at somewhat lower (but still very high!) levels. Pregnant women should avoid high-dose vitamin A supplements of preformed vitamin A, which can increase the risk of birth defects (always seek out medical advice from health professionals before taking supplements). Additionally, beta-carotene supplements are linked to a higher lung cancer risk in smokers and asbestos-exposed individuals, but carotenoid-rich foods like fruits and vegetables are safe and beneficial.
Learn more here.
How Much Vitamin A Do We Need?
The following table summarizes the current recommended amounts of vitamin A, based on age, gender, or situation.
Although vitamin A is more often listed in the form of international units (IU) for food and supplements, the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin A is presented as retinol activity equivalents (RAE)—a calculation that accounts for variations in the bioavailability of different vitamin A sources. For example, 1 IU of retinol and 1 IU of supplemental beta-carotene equals 0.3 micrograms of RAE; 1 IU of dietary beta-carotene equals 0.05 mcg RAE; and 1 IU of alpha-carotene or beta-cryptoxanthin equals 0.025 RAE.
It’s also important to note that vitamin A has some known interactions with other nutrients including iron, vitamin D, and zinc. Learn more here.
| 0 – 6 months | |||||
| 6 months to < 12 months | |||||
| 1 yr – 3 yrs | |||||
| 4 yrs – 8 yrs | |||||
| 9 yrs – 13 yrs | |||||
| 14 yrs – 18 yrs | |||||
| 19 yrs – 50 yrs | |||||
| 51+ yrs | |||||
| Pregnant (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (31 – 50 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (31 – 50 yrs) |
Nutrient Daily Values
Nutrition requirements and recommended nutrient intake for infants, children, adolescents, adults, mature adults, and pregnant and lactating individuals.
More Food Sources of Vitamin A
Retinoids are found exclusively in animal products, with the richest sources being liver, cod liver oil, egg yolks, grass-fed high-fat dairy products, and seafood like shrimp, salmon, sardines, and tuna. Vitamin A precursors are abundant in yellow, orange, and green fruits and vegetables, including carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, broccoli, cantaloupe, mangoes, winter squash, lettuce, tomatoes, apricots, leafy greens, and bell peppers. Additionally, some ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin A. However, while plant-based vitamin A precursors are often praised as excellent sources, the body’s ability to convert them into active vitamin A is highly variable and generally limited.
Best Food Sources of Vitamin A
The following foods have high concentrations of vitamin A, containing at least 50% of the recommended dietary allowance per serving, making them our best food sources of this valuable vitamin!
Good Food Sources of Vitamin A
The following foods are also excellent or good sources of vitamin A, containing at least 10% (and up to 50%) of the daily value per serving.
Top 5 Common Food Sources
If you’re looking for top 5 common food sources of other important nutrients check out these posts!
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Foods High in Vitamin K
