10 Benefits Of Carrot (DOCTOR)

By: Diana Herrington
October 26, 2011

HForget 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 the benefits from this
amazing vegetable.
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 the
most beta-carotene had 40 percent lower risk of
macular degeneration than those who consumed
little.

2. Helps prevent cancer
Studies have shown carrots reduce the risk of
lung cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.
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. Slows down 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. Promotes healthier skin
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. Helps prevent infection
Carrots are known by herbalists to prevent
infection. They can be used on cuts—shredded
raw or boiled and mashed.

6. Promotes healthier 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. 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. Cleanses 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. Protects 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. Prevents 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 artificial sugar but even 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, 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 1600s 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.