Carrots: Facts and Healthy Benefits

Carrots were some of the vegetables scrutinized in recent studies on foods that are rich in beta-carotene and their relation to bone health. More chiefly, ingesting yellow, orange and green veggies was once assessed to find out if a higher consumption is related to higher bone mass.

Interestingly, members who ate a minimum of one serving per day of yellow, orange or green veggies had healthier bone mass than contributors who ate less than one serving per day.

Furthermore, members who ate lower than one helping per day had bone mass at a level that would put them at risk for bone-associated difficulties.

Carrots are vegetables which are often enjoyed as both uncooked and cooked forms.

While carrots can be treasured in a variety of colors,from whites and yellows to reds and purples, most of them are orange in color. As a least goal for vegetable intake from the yellow or orange types, experts recommend consuming them half a cup per day.

Optimal intake would be one cup per day, along with greens, potatoes, squash, and yellow corn which can contribute to your everyday nutrient requirements.

Health Benefits

Carrots are well-recognized for their rich supply of this antioxidant nutrient that was once named for them: beta-carotene. Nonetheless, these delicious root veggies are the best sources of beta-carotene and other vitamins and minerals.

All varieties of carrots have valuable amounts of antioxidant vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C and beta-carotene.

In many varieties of carrots, beta-carotene is essentially the most abundant antioxidant nutrient, which is responsible for over 95% of all carotenoids in many carrot types.

Different carotenoids that are typically present in carrots comprise of alpha-carotene and lutein. The most common antioxidant nutrients in carrots are as follows:

• Carotenoids
• Alpha-carotene
• Beta-carotene
• Lutein
• Hydroxycinnamic acids
• Caffeic acid
• Coumaric acid
• Ferulic acid
• Anthocyanins
• Cyanidins
• Malvidins

In a study from the Netherlands, subjects had been followed for a period of 10 years and their meal plans were examined for fruit and vegetable consumption in four color categories: green, orange or yellow, red or purple, and white.

Among these four-color classes, it was foods with deeper colors of orange and yellow that had been determined to be essentially the most protecting against cardiovascular diseases (CVD).

The capability of carrots to provide cancer-protecting advantages has been an active study on this root vegetable. Of special interest on this field are substances found in the carrot referred to as polyacetylenes.

Carrots have the capability to take their fatty acids and convert them into molecules called polyacetylenes. These polyacetylenes include molecules like falcarinol and falcarindiol. Polyacetylenes furnish carrots with defense from microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria, and they have also have proven anti-cancer effects.

There are also some studies which have some that greater carrot consumption may lead to lower glaucoma rates than people with little carrot intake. One phytonutrient in carrots, geranyl acetate, is a substance that is known to give rise to cataract protection.