Carrots

The carrot is one of the most useful vegetables in a cancer-conscious kitchen. It is inexpensive, keeps for weeks, and delivers a big dose of beta-carotene, the plant pigment the body converts into vitamin A.

Cooking carrots actually makes their carotenoids more available to the body, and a little fat in the pan helps further. Roast them with olive oil, simmer them in soups, or grate them raw into salads for crunch.

During treatment, cooked carrots are gentle and easy to digest. Pureed carrot soup is a classic for a reason: it is soothing, mild, and slips down easily when appetite is low.