10 Benefits of Carrots – the Crunchy Superfood Is So Good for You

Forget about Vitamin A pills. With this orange crunchy superfood, 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.

10 Health Benefits of Carrots

1.  Improves 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 large amounts of beta-carotene had a 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 rats.

3.  Slows Down Aging

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

4.  Health 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 prevents premature wrinkling, acne, dry skin, pigmentation, blemishes, uneven skin tone.

5.  A Powerful Antiseptic.

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 full recipe at carrot face mask.

7.  Prevents 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 fibres 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’s no surprise that in a Harvard University study, people who ate five or more carrots a week were 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 twenty!  They like the sweetness and carrots are good for their teeth and don’t have white sugar but even too many natural sugars cause digestive problems and diabetes. They probably would do better with the carrot tops.  We would benefit from 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 at this link 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 colours including:
  Orange Carrots  Purple Carrots  White Carrots   Yellow Carrots  Red  Carrots
• 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 is 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, oils or pureeing, juicing them increases the availability of carotenoids by 600%.
Fats help the absorption of carotenoids into the blood by 1000% as carotenoids are fat-soluble.

Delicious Carrot Recipes for You

 Carrot Salad with Currants & Sunflower Seeds Is So Healthy and Delicious! – This carrot salad with black currants and sunflower seeds is especially unique and so tasty. Also, it is filling too.

 Carrots with Arame – carrots with seaweed is so good for us and this is a very tasty recipe.

 Creamy Vegan Potato Leek Soup with Carrots – I created this potato leek soup at the end of September here in Edmonton, it felt like winter was almost here!  This filling and warming soup is perfect for a yummy lunch. The recipe makes a big pot of soup which fed two of us for two lunches. It tastes so good that we also enjoyed it the second day too. Not only is it delicious it is full of healthy real foods too making it a very nutritious meal.

 Carrots with Orange – A surprising but delightful combination which is so tasty.

 Carrots with Arame – carrots with seaweed is so good for us and this is a very tasty recipe.

 Adzuki Vegetable Bean Stew Recipe -This aduki bean stew is a simple recipe made with one of the easiest to digest beans; adzuki beans. I love Adzuki beans and this tasty stew is filling and delicious.This stew is a good source of protein and it is good to eat lots of vegetables too.

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

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