10 Benefits of Carrots: The Crunchy Powerfood

Forget about vitamin A pills. With this orange crunchy powerfood, you get vitamin A and a host of other powerful health benefits including beautiful skin, cancer prevention, and anti-aging. Read how to get maximum benefits from this amazing vegetable.

Benefits of Carrots

1.  Improved Vision
Western culture’s  understanding of carrots being “good for the eyes” is one of the few we got right. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the liver. Vitamin A is transformed in the retina, to rhodopsin, a purple pigment necessary for night vision.
Beta-carotene has also been shown to protect against macular degeneration and senile cataracts. A study found that people who eat the most beta-carotene had 40 percent lower risk of macular degeneration than those who consumed little.

2.  Cancer Prevention
Studies have shown carrots reduce the risk of lung cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer. Researchers have just discovered falcarinol and falcarindiol which they feel cause the anticancer properties.
Falcarinol is a natural pesticide produced by the carrot that protects its roots from fungal diseases. Carrots are one of the only common sources of this compound. A study showed 1/3 lower cancer risk by carrot-eating mice.

3.  Anti-Aging
The high level of beta-carotene acts as an antioxidant to cell damage done to the body through regular metabolism.  It help slows down the aging of cells.

4.  Healthy Glowing Skin (from the inside)
Vitamin A and antioxidants protects the skin from sun damage. Deficiencies of vitamin A cause dryness to the skin, hair and nails. Vitamin A prevents premature wrinkling, acne, dry skin, pigmentation, blemishes, and uneven skin tone.

5.  A Powerful Antiseptic
Carrots are known by herbalists to prevent infection. They can be used on cuts – shredded raw or boiled and mashed.

6.  Beautiful Skin (from the outside)
Carrots are used as an inexpensive and very convenient facial mask.  Just mix grated carrot with a bit of honey. See the full recipe here: carrot face mask.

7.  Prevent Heart Disease
Studies show that diets high in carotenoids are associated with a lower risk of heart disease.  Carrots have not only beta-carotene but also alpha-carotene and lutein.
The regular consumption of carrots also reduces cholesterol levels because the soluble fibers in carrots bind with bile acids.

8.  Cleanse the Body
Vitamin A assists the liver in flushing out the toxins from the body. It reduces the bile and fat in the liver. The fibers present in carrots help clean out the colon and hasten waste movement.

9.  Healthy Teeth and Gums
It’s all in the crunch! Carrots clean your teeth and mouth. They scrape off plaque and food particles just like toothbrushes or toothpaste.  Carrots stimulate gums and  trigger a lot of saliva, which being alkaline, balances out the acid-forming, cavity-forming bacteria.  The minerals in carrots prevent tooth damage.

10.  Prevent Stroke:
From all the above benefits it is no surprise that in a Harvard University study, people who ate more than six carrots a week are less likely to suffer a stroke than those who ate only one carrot a month or less.

Fun Facts on Carrots

• Rabbits love to eat carrots but they shouldn’t eat too much.
  Remember that a rabbit eating a single carrot is like us eating over 20!  They like the sweetness and carrots are good for their teeth and don’t have white sugar but even too too many natural sugars will cause digestive problems and diabetes. They probably would do better with the carrot tops.  We would benefit from the tops also but probably won’t eat them!
• Carrots are the second most popular type of vegetable after potatoes.
• The biggest carrot recorded is more than 19 pounds and the longest is over 19 feet!
  You can see them here:  biggest carrot – but they aren’t particularly pretty!
• There are over 100 species of carrots.
  Some are big. Some are small and they come in a variety of colors including: orange, purple, white, yellow, and red.
• English women in the 1600’s often wore carrot leaves in their hats in place of flowers or feathers.
• The name “carrot” comes from the Greek word “karoton.”
  The beta-carotene that is found in carrots was actually named for the carrot itself!
• The average American eats about 12 pounds of carrots a year.
  That’s only one cup per week.  We could easily triple that with great benefits if we were also eating a variety of other vegetables.

How To Eat Carrots

The nutrition in carrots are tightly encased in protein sacs that have to be broken by heat (cooking) or mechanical action (grinding, juicing, proper chewing).

Cooking the carrots in fat or oils, or pureeing or juicing them increases the availability of carotenoids by 600 percent.

Fats help the absorption of carotenoids into the blood by 1000 percent as carotenoids are fat soluble.

Recipes with Carrots:

Carrots with Arame: Seaweed recipe for health.

Carrots with Orange: A surprising but delightful combination….and it’s fast!

Chili Con Vege: Diana’s version of chili filled with carrots.