Carrot
The vegetable where preparation makes the biggest difference. Raw, you get less than half of it.
How to use it
With a meal that has fat in it, because the pigment only dissolves in fat. Cooked as a vegetable, or grated through a salad with a dressing.
The best version
Firm, smooth skinned, ideally still with the tops on if you want them fresh. Old winter carrots are sweeter and fine for soup.
How to prepare it
Boil them and mash them, with fat alongside. That is not a matter of taste: it is the difference between nearly all of it and less than half.
What it does
How much beta-carotene you actually absorb depends on what you did to the carrot. In volunteers with an ileostomy, where everything not absorbed could be measured, 65.1 percent of the beta-carotene was taken up from cooked, pureed carrot and 41.4 percent from raw, chopped carrot. Both meals had fat with them.
Watch out
Without fat alongside, most of it is lost however you cook it. A raw carrot as a snack is a fine snack and not a source of vitamin A.