PLEASE NOTE: The Carrot Museum does not recommend self diagnosis or self medication. The information contained in this web site has not been verified for correctness. Some of the information contained herein is hearsay and may not be correct. Use the information from this page only at your own risk!  If in doubt consult a doctor.
Note: If you have diabetes it is recommended you read this before eating carrots.

Nutrition Page 2 the effect on your bodily functions, your daily needs; how carrots can help with Cancer, heart disease, stroke & diabetes.
Nutrition Page 3 examines medicinal uses and alternative medicine associated with carrots and carrot analysis.

 You CAN eat the green leaves of carrots - read more.

Introduction
Let us start with a brief history of Medicine and Nutrition -

Patient "I am sick".

Physicians responses:
3500 years ago - "Here eat this root"
2500 year ago - "That root is heathen - say this prayer"
150 years ago - "That is superstition - drink this potion"
50 years ago - "That potion is snake oil - take this pill"
15 years ago - "That pill is no good, take this antibiotic"
Today - "that is not natures way - here eat this root"

Carrots also contain, in smaller amounts, essential oils, carbohydrates and nitrogenous composites. They are well-known for their sweetening, antianaemic, healing, diuretic, remineralizing and sedative properties.
In order to assimilate the greatest quantity of the nutrients present in carrots, it is important to chew them well - they are the exception to the rule - they are more nutritious cooked than raw. Why? Click here to find out. Also most of the goodness is actually in, or just below the skin.

Nutrition is the cornerstone of good health. As we go through life, there are so many illnesses that could have been prevented with better nutrition. This has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt over the past few years.
Research has proven that getting the proper level of antioxidants into our bloodstream will reduce the risk of cancer. Consumption of carrots increases the level of key antioxidants in the bloodstream. See more on antioxidants here.

Vitamin supplements are not normally necessary if you have a balanced diet. Eat whole food and feel good knowing that you've got nutrition from nature's gifts going through your body every day.  Good health never came out of a bottle or capsule.

The power and goodness of carrots  - Carrots have many important vitamins and minerals. They are rich in antioxidants Beta Carotene, Alpha Carotene, Phytochemicals and Glutathione, Calcium and Potassium, and vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and E, which are also considered antioxidants, protecting as well as nourishing the skin. They contain a form of calcium easily absorbed by the body. Finally they also contain Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorous.and Sulphur - better than a wonder drug!!

Read more about the role and power of antioxidants here.
Find out more on the Vitamin A page. 
What carrots can do for your health.

Carrots contain elements that keep us healthy on many levels.

The 3 most important elements are Beta-carotene, Alpha Carotene, and Phytochemicals.

Beta carotene usually receives most attention when examining carrots. It is one of about 500 similar compounds called carotenoids, which are present in many fruits and vegetables.

The body changes beta carotene into vitamin A, which is important in strengthening the immune system, keeping the skin, lungs and intestinal track in order, and promoting healthy cell growth. Beta-carotene is found primarily in dark green, red, yellow, and orange-coloured plants, and is converted by the body into vitamin A and also works on its own. Photo of beta carotene under the microscope.

Vitamin A is a pale yellow primary alcohol derived from carotene. It affects the formation and maintenance of skin, mucous membranes, bones, and teeth, vision and reproduction. In addition dietary Vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene, an antioxidant, may help reduce the risk of certain cancers. However, beta carotene is much more than the precursor for vitamin A.
Only so much beta carotene can be changed into vitamin A, and that which is not changed contributes to boosting the immune system and is also a potent antioxidant.
Antioxidants fight free radicals and help prevent them from causing membrane damage, DNA mutation, and lipid (fat) oxidation, all of which may lead to many of the diseases that we consider "degenerative." Exposure to sunlight, cigarette smoke and air pollution, along with your body's every day cellular activities, cause free radicals to form. It is free radical havoc that scientists believe is pivotal in the development of age related degenerative diseases such as cancer, cataracts, arthritis, heart disease an even asthma. It is highly recommended that vitamin A be consumed from the diet rather than from supplements (particularly in the case of beta carotene), because vitamin A obtained from a varied diet offers the maximal potential of health benefits that supplements cannot. The richest sources of preformed vitamin A are liver, fish liver oils, milk, milk products, butter, and eggs. Liver is an especially rich source because vitamin A is primarily stored in the liver of animals and humans.
Vitamin A is also found in a variety of dark green and deep orange fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, butternut squash, turnip greens, bok choy, mustard greens, and romaine lettuce. Beta carotene is the most active carotenoid (the red, orange, and yellow pigments) form of vitamin A, but it is inefficiently absorbed and converted to retinol in comparison to vitamin A from animal sources. As you can see Vitamin A intake is essential to human health.

Alpha carotene. Beta carotene is not the only carotenoid. Often overlooked, and also found in carrots, is alpha carotene. According to an article in NCI Cancer Weekly (Nov. 13, 1989), Michiaki Murakoshi, who leads a team of biochemists at Japan's Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, contends that alpha carotene may be more powerful than beta carotene in inhibiting processes that may lead to tumor growth. Murakoshi indicates that neuroblastoma (cancer) cells coated with carotenoids experience a drop in N-myc activity compared to untreated cells. N-myc is a gene that codes for cell growth-stimulating proteins and can contribute to cancer formation and growth. Alpha carotene was found to be about ten times more inhibitory toward N-myc activity than beta carotene. Murakoshi concludes that all types of carotenoids should be studied for possible health benefits.

Phytochemicals which are found in vegetables, fruits, and nuts, may reduce the risk of cancer, strokes, hinder the ageing process, balance hormonal metabolism, and have antiviral and antibacterial properties.
A phytochemical is a natural bioactive compound found in plant foods that works with nutrients and dietary fibre to protect against disease. Research suggests that phytochemicals, working together with nutrients found in fruits, vegetables and nuts, may help slow the ageing process and reduce the risk of many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cataracts, osteoporosis, and urinary tract infections. They can have complementary and overlapping mechanisms of action in the body, including antioxidant effects, modulation of detoxification enzymes, stimulation of the immune system, modulation of hormone metabolism, and antibacterial and antiviral effect.

"Phyto" is a Greek word that means plant and phytochemicals are usually related to plant pigments. So, fruit and vegetables that are bright colours - yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and purple - generally contain the most phytochemicals and the most nutrients.

You can benefit from all of the phytochemicals and nutrients found in plant foods by eating 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables a day and eating more whole grains, soya and nuts.

More than 900 different phytochemicals have been found in plant foods and more will be discovered. These protective plant compounds are an emerging area of nutrition and health, with new research reported every day. Current research suggests that most fruit and vegetables contain phytochemicals and that many fruit and vegetables contain a wide variety of phytochemicals.
Read more about the action and benefit of Phytochemicals, nutrients and Flavonoids - click here.

• Boosting immunity (especially among older people).
• Reducing photosensitivity (beta-carotene protects the skin from sun damage).
• Improving symptoms of HIV.
• Easing alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
• Helping to heal minor wounds and injuries.
• Reducing the risk of heart disease.
• Reducing the risk of high blood pressure.
• Cleansing the liver, and when consumed regularly, can help the liver excrete fats and bile.
• Fighting bronchitis.
• Fighting infection (vitamin A keeps cell membranes healthy, making them stronger against disease-causing microorganisms)
• Improving muscle, flesh, and skin health.
• Helping fight aneamia.
• Reducing acne.
• Improving eye health.

Pigment Power in Carrot Colour

Have you ever seen a purple carrot? How about white, yellow, red or black? Most people haven't, even though such carrots have existed for hundreds of years. They are available in good health food stores, often called "Rainbow Packs".

Carrots were originally purple or red, with a thin root. The species did nit turn orange until the 1500's when Dutch growers used a mutant yellow carrot seed from North Africa to develop a carrot in the colour of the House of Orange, the Dutch Royal Family.  The first carrots were grown for medicinal purposes, perhaps the medicine tasted good! There is lots more in the history pages - here.

Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that pigments in these colourful carrots, which taste just like regular carrots, may help prevent heart disease and cancer, and reduce cholesterol. Studies examining the health benefits of fruits and vegetables are revealing the disease-preventive powers of the pigments that give plants their distinctive colours.

Orange carrots get their colour from beta carotene, a pigment the body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency, although rare in the United States, poses a major public health problem in developing countries second only to protein malnutrition.

According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency partially or totally blinds nearly 350,000 children from more than 75 countries every year. Roughly 60 percent of these children die within months of going blind. However, vitamin A deficiency is preventable.

Factors Affecting the Colour of Carrots

1. Temperatures above and below the optimum (above 70° and below 60°F) reduce the colour of carrots.

2. Spring and summer carrots are often of better colour than autumn and winter.

3. Carrots grown on sandy soils and soils high in organic matter produce a higher colour than did carrots on silt loams.

4. Excessive water decreases the colour.

5. Reducing the number of daylight hours has reduced the colour.

Colour is more intense in the older portions of the root. It decreases from the epidermis and center toward the cambium, and from the top to the bottom.

Studies have been carried out in the USA on the differing properties of different coloured carrots.

Orange Carrots contain beta carotene, with some alpha-carotene, both of which are orange pigments. High in Vitamin A essential for well-being, healthy eyes. These carrots originate from Europe and the Middle East.
Yellow carrots contain xanthophylls and lutene, pigments similar to beta carotene, which help develop healthy eyes aid in the fight against macular degeneration and may prevent lung and other cancers and reduce the risk of astherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). These came from the Middle East.
Red carrots are tinted by lycopene, (another form of carotene) a pigment also found in tomatoes and watermelon; lycopene is associated with the reduced risk of macular degeneration, serum lipid oxidation, helps prevent heart disease and a wide variety of cancers including prostate cancer. Originally from India and China.
Purple carrots (usually orange inside) have even more beta carotene than their orange cousins, and get their pigment from an entirely different class, the anthocyanins, these pigments act as powerful antioxidants, grabbing and holding on to harmful free radicals in the body. Anthocyanins also help prevent heart disease by slowing blood clotting and and are good anti inflammatory agents. These originate from Turkey, and the Middle and Far East. (See also the purple carrot page)
White carrots lack pigment, but may contain other health-promoting substances called phytochemicals, natural bioactive compounds found in plant foods that work with nutrients and dietary fibre to protect against disease. One might say these are the least healthy of carrots. They originate from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan.
Black Carrots contain anthocyanins, part of the flavonoid family with antioxidant properties. Flavonoids are currently under investigation as anticancer compounds, as free radical scavengers in living systems, as well as inhibitors of LDL (the bad) cholesterol and the black carrot anthocyanins are especially active. It has anti-bacterial and anti-fungicidal properties and oil made from its seed can help control scalp itchiness and provides essential nutrients for hair growth. The ancient black carrot has been making a comeback, not so much for culinary purposes but as a source of natural food colorants. These originate from Turkey, and the Middle and Far East.

KIDS!! Follow the rainbow to good health and see what nutrients are contained in various colours of common fruit and vegetables - here.

Do not overdose - your skin will turn yellow! - It's called Carotenemia!
Consume too many carrots or drink too much juice and your skin, mostly the hands, will turn yellowish-orange. There are two possible reasons why your skin turns orange. Either your body is unable to process all the carotene properly in the carrot juice you are drinking , or your liver is toxic. Either way, the colour shows up in your skin.

If you are having difficulty processing carotene:

You may be drinking too much carrot juice at once. Your body can't really assimilate more than 8-10 oz. of carrot juice at one time (taken on an empty stomach). So if you're drinking a bigger glass than that, you could be causing your own problem. Instead, try drinking no more than 8 oz. at a time. If you're trying to add extra carrot juice to your diet (possibly because you're fighting cancer and want the extra antioxidants), then drink 8 oz. of carrot juice and wait at least an hour before ingesting more. Your body can handle it at this rate and you shouldn't then be getting discoloured skin.

Carotenemia is the medical term for increased blood levels of the pigment carotene. Do not be fooled this is not a sign of good health. It signals excessive intake of carotene. This yellow-orange skin hue is a tell-tale sign of a beta carotene overdose from this hefty carrot/juice consumption. Beta carotene, along with other plant pigments generally called carotenes, found in carrots and other colourful vegetables and fruits, are a boost to your health - but like everything in life, only in moderation.

Like many foods eaten in excess, carrots can produce unhealthy results too. Carotene, the pigment that gives carrots and other yellow fruits and vegetables their colour, can cause jaundice when consumed in excessive quantities. Some people who have imbibed large quantities of carrot juice in a relatively short time developed a yellow hue to their skin.

Though the yellowing of the skin from indulging in a heavy dose of carrots is seldom serious and will disappear in a few days, continued carrot gorging can cause medical problems. In 1974 one unfortunate English health advocate named Basil Brown consumed 10 gallons of carrot juice and took 10,000 times the recommended RDA of vitamin A in a period of 10 days. Those 10 days were the unfortunate man's undoing, his skin turned bright yellow and he died of severe liver damage.

Extract from "The Times" - Times 15 February 1974

Carrot juice diet killed scientist

A health food addict who had been drinking up to eight pints of carrot juice a day was bright yellow when he died, an inquest at Croydon. Surrey, was told yesterday. Dr John Fabricius said he believed Mr Basil Brown' aged 48, a scientific adviser, had died of vitamin A poisoning.

Mrs Brenda Brown, of Hayes Lane, Kenley, the dead man's wife, told Dr Mary McHugh, the coroner, that she had prepared the carrot juice. "Nobody pre- scribed it. He just thought it was the right way to cat. He also took vitamin A tablets."

A typical day's diet for her husband was: breakfast, carrot juice and fruit ; midday, more carrot Juice and fruit; evening meal, eggs, tomatoes, cheese. Dr J. Fabricius, the family's doctor, told the coroner that he had warned Mr Brown against his addiction to vitamin A. He had warned Mr Brown to stop taking vitamin A and had later sent him to a specialist who also warned him.

Mr Brown had been '"an intelligent man but he had a very low opinion of doctors ". Dr David Haler, a pathologist, said that Mr Brown was bright yellow when he died. Vitamin A poisoning, like alcoholic poisoning, produced cirrhosis of the liver. The inquest found that Mr Brown had died from carrot juice addiction.

Pro-vitamin A is converted to vitamin A in the body. It is true that drinking more than five glasses of carrot juice per week may cause the skin to yellow slightly. This is simply a manifestation of the toxins that the liver is excreting. As an overall tonic and rejuvenator, carrot juice, in moderation, can't be beat.

The good thing about beta-carotene overdosing, is that the body doesn't convert the excess to vitamin A.  If this were the case, serious toxicity problems, such as liver damage, would occur. Instead, the excess carotene accumulates over a period of weeks in the skin, primarily on the palms of hands and feet, lending a yellow-orange hue.

The amount of carotene that causes notable skin colour changes varies, but one study showed that approximately 50 milligrams daily led to discolouration in about 10 days. The skin discolouration is completely harmless, except perhaps to friends who may find this appearance startling.
While this orange skin is not a threat to health, the over-emphasis on one source of beta carotene, from carrots/juice, is a concern. You are missing out on health benefits from the family of carotenes and other phytochemicals by not eating a variety of vegetables (such as tomatoes, kale, spinach, winter squashes, broccoli and romaine lettuce) and fruit (including apricots, tangerines, watermelon, cantaloupe and grapefruit).

Remember that while excess carotene can often cause this condition in children, it is uncommon in healthy adults because their liver should function well enough to convert the beta-carotene to vitamin A and eliminate the rest from the body. As a rule, spinach juice won't turn you green, beets won't turn you red, carrots won't turn you orange. We usually get yellow / orange when we are jaundiced because our liver is congested or it is casting off toxins. The skin is one of four organs of elimination in your body. Some toxins will come out there. (Did you know the skin is the largest organ in the body?).

Carotenemia should not to be confused with lycopenemia , a similar condition - an excess of lycopene in the blood. The skin takes on the red colour found in tomatoes.

Read more about Vitamin A - Click here.      Find out more here about Carotenemia here.

Researchers prove the validity of carrot allergy

Allergic reactions to carrot and celery are very uncommon in the United States, however, reactions to carrots affect up to 25% of food-allergic individuals in Europe, and are associated with cross sensitivity to celery, certain spices, mugwort, and birch pollen. Several European researchers were recently able to prove the allergenicity of carrot for the first time in a study from the August Journal Allergy & Clinical Immunology. Barbara Ballmer-Weber, MD, and colleagues from University Hospital in Zurich, Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Langen, Germany and the University of Vienna, sought to confirm sensitization to carrot by conducting several different tests on 26 patients with a history of allergic reactions to carrots.
Two food challenges were performed. The first was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC), where subjects were given two different drinks: one was an active drink containing carrot and the other was a placebo drink. The second food challenge performed was a spit and chew test. The patients with a negative reactions in the DBPCFC chewed 5 g of raw carrot and spit it out. If they did not experience a reaction, they chewed and swallowed 5 g, then 10 g, and then 20 g of raw carrot. Skin tests and in vitro blood tests were performed to check for the presence of IgE, the antibody that produces allergic reactions. In vitro testing was also performed to see if allergic sensitivity to birch pollen initially triggered the sensitivity to carrots in these individuals.

In the first food challenge, researchers found that 20 patients reacted to the carrot-containing drink but not the placebo. Four patients responded to neither the carrot-containing drink nor the placebo drink. In the spit and chew test, three of these latter four subjects noted no symptoms. The fourth patient reported symptoms of oral allergy syndrome (itching of the throat and mouth) after swallowing 5 g of raw carrot. Researchers found that all patients who had positive DBPCFC's also had positive skin test results to raw carrot, while all patients who had negative DBPCFC's had negative skin tests and did not have subsequent reactions to the ingestion of carrot. Additionally, all of the carrot-allergic patients also had birch pollen specific IgE. However, in vitro testing of the serum from the carrot-allergic patients revealed that allergic binding could not be blocked by birch pollen proteins.

For the first time researchers were able to confirm carrot allergy in 20 of 26 European patients using DBPCFC protocol with carrot. Although these allergic patients produced IgE to both carrot and birch pollens, in vitro testing seemed to discount the theory that exposure to airborne birch pollen always precedes and predisposes allergic patients to the development of carrot allergies.
The AAAAI is the largest professional medical specialty organization in the United States representing allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals and others with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic disease. Allergy/immunology specialists are pediatric or internal medicine physicians who have elected an additional two years of training to become specialized in the treatment of asthma, allergy and immunologic disease. Established in 1943, the Academy has more than 6,000 members in the United States, Canada and 60 other countries. The Academy serves as an advocate to the public by providing educational information through its Web site.
Click here to go there.

EDITOR'S NOTE: These studies were published in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Carrots have been known (rarely) to contain toxic chemicals: recent routine tests found unacceptably high levels of organophosphorus pesticides (used to kill the carrot fly) in some carrots. Peeling carrots and slicing off their tops removes virtually all of these residues. But beware that most of the goodness in carrots is in the skins. (see below)

Better raw or cooked? The answer is yes to both questions. Read on.

Are Carrots more nutritious in their raw state than when cooked? That's a very good question. Opinions vary. Clearly a raw carrot has more goodness in it when it is raw and therefore you would assume it is the healthiest way to eat it. But unless the carrot is juiced then consumed, the body cannot break down the goodness because of the cellular nature of the carrot.

So in reality, unlike most other vegetables (though not all), carrots are more nutritious when eaten cooked than eaten raw (except when juiced). Because raw carrots have tough cellular walls, the body is able to convert less than 25 per cent of their beta carotene into vitamin A.  Cooking, however,  partially dissolves cellulose-thickened cell walls, freeing up nutrients by breaking down the cell membranes. So long as the cooked carrots are served as part of a meal that provides some fat the body can absorb more than half of the carotene. Also, it usual for Carrots to be cut into pieces and eaten after boiling or steaming, but done in this way, half the proteins and soluble carbohydrates will be lost so it is more advisable to cook them whole and then cut up.
Experiments show that eating lightly-cooked carrots is much more beneficial than eating raw carrots, which confirms the ancient wisdom in traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have always recommended that their patients eat lightly-cooked carrots in order to get the best nutritional absorption. Recent research by Dr. Xiangdong Wang at Tufts University shows that beta carotene can change in the human body into a substance called retinoic acid, which is widely used to treat cancers.

Carrots are more nutritious when cut by a knife! - read here.

Goodness in the skin - most of the goodness is actually in, or just below the skin. So peeling takes away some nutritional value some carotene and some trace minerals. Up to 15% of the carotene! In fact the goodness diminishes as you approach the centre, so one could put up an arguments for coring rather than peeling! Hence "baby" carrots are less nutritious than whole ones. (They are shaved and abrasively tumbled)

You just need to scrub them real well to get rid of the dirt. Some people think that pesticides are concentrated in the peel of conventional carrots, but that's not the case. Since carrots are grown underground, the chemicals get into the soil and can seep into the entire veggie, so peeling won't necessarily prevent you from consuming pesticides.

Back to where you came from click here.

Cooking also increases antioxidant power   

High temperature is usually not the best thing for many of the sensitive compounds that are contained in our food and new research from the University of Arkansas indicates that for carrots, at least, cooking may in fact increase their goodness.

Carrots are one of the best sources of carotene which is a strong antioxidant. But carrots also contain other phenolic compounds that are antioxidants. Many people do not realise that numerous phenolic compounds are located in the skin of fruit and vegetables, many of which are removed by peeling prior to processing.

The Arkansas researchers were studying the effects of thermal processing (cooking) on the antioxidant properties of carrots. The carrots (peeled or non-peeled) were sliced and blanched (2 minutes or 20 minutes), cooked in cans at 250 oC for 75 minutes and then stored for up to 4 weeks. In all cases the antioxidant power of the processed carrots was greater - on average 34% higher - than for raw carrots. During the first week of storage the antioxidant properties continued to climb, before declining over the next 3 weeks in storage. At the end of the 4 weeks the processed carrots still had more oxidative power than raw carrots.

Heating vegetables, either during processing or cooking, is a way of reducing enzyme activity that can lead to undesirable changes in colour, flavour and texture. But the heat can also change compounds found in the raw food into other chemically related compounds. The properties of these new compounds may be different as was reported in this carrot cooking experiment.

Raw vegetables may be popular with many people, but this study shows that at least some processed and canned vegetables can be just as nutritious as raw ones. In areas where fresh produce is not available year round, or where frozen vegetables are not practical, canned vegetables are an ideal option.

(reference: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 48: 1315-1321 (2000)

The nutritional value of fresh produce does decrease with time. According to the University of Minnesota Extension Service, nearly half of some vitamins may be lost within a few days of harvesting unless fresh produce is quickly cooled or preserved.

Within 1 to 2 weeks, even refrigerated produce will continue to lose half or more of some of its vitamins. The heating process during canning also destroys from one-third to one-half of vitamins A, E, thiamin and riboflavin. Once canned, losses of between 5 percent and 20 percent of these vitamins may occur during a year.

The best advice then is to cook them but not too much this increases the bioavailability of carotenoids in plant foods; and, absorption of vitamin A from the diet is improved when consumed along with some fat in the same meal. The next page continues the nutritional story concentrating on the bodily effects of carrot consumption. Learn how carrots help prevent and lower cancer risk, heart disease and stroke. Also the carrot's effect on eyesight and stomach ailments.

Carrots truly are natures wonder drug.

See the recipes page to learn why you should eat one carrot a day. Click here to go there.

Ten reasons why you should eat more vegetables. Click here.

Learn about the worthwhile work done by Food Gatherers to distribute surplus food to the needy. They use a carrot logo -naturally! Click here to go there.

Find out more about Vitamin A - here.

More on antioxidants here.

 
NOTE:The information on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a replacement for medical advice from your personal physician.

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