10 Health Benefits of Carrots – Proven by Science (and 4 Carrot Recipes to Try)
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10 Health Benefits of Carrots – Proven by Science (and 4 Carrot Recipes to Try)
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Carrots have been sought after by many hoping to cure themselves of a wide range of ailments. With benefits ranging from improving skin complexion to curing heart disease, carrots are certainly a nutritional powerhouse that one won’t want to overlook.
Carrots have been extensively studied for many years because of their proposed nutritional benefits. Of particular interest has been beta-carotene, an antioxidant present in carrots that’s responsible for its orange pigment. Beta-carotene is hardly the only responsible nutrient, though – carrots are jam packed full of nutrients, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and different antioxidants. All of these contribute to their health benefits in a number of ways, and we’ll get into more detail about how to maximize these nutrients for the most benefit.
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1. Carrots have a great nutritional profile
Carrots are top-notch in terms of a number of nutrients packed inside of them. They are particularly high in vitamin A – in fact, they’re the second highest provider of vitamin A in the world, second only to sweet potatoes. Here’s a more in-depth look at some of the most prominent nutrients in carrots, and a bit of information about what they can do for your body.
- Vitamin A – 113% of your daily recommended intake per 100 grams (D.R.I.)Vitamin A is an important nutrient for maintaining the health of your eyes, keeping your skin healthy, and helping your body maintain blood pressure and immune function.
- Biotin – 20% of your D.R.I.Even at only 20%, carrots are the 8th most significant provider of biotin that you can find. Biotin is particularly useful for maintaining blood sugar and promoting the health of your skin.
- Vitamin K – 18% of your D.R.I.Vitamin K is a crucial nutrient in ensuring that your body maintains its ability to promote blood clotting – the good kind of blood clotting, which helps your body seal wounds.
- Molybdenum – 14% of your D.R.I.Molybdenum is a very important nutrient in that it maintains a proper balance of sulphur in your body. Sulphur is actually extremely important for your body to maintain proper health. Sulphur helps our body produce its own natural antioxidants, and build strong connective tissues.
- Potassium – 11% of your D.R.I.Potassium is a nutrient that’s largely responsible for helping your body maintain a normal, healthy level of blood pressure. In doing this, it also takes a lot of strain off your kidneys and can improve their functionality and health
- Vitamin C – 10% of your D.R.I.While not particularly high in vitamin C, even 10% of your daily need for this vitamin can have a positive impact. Vitamin C acts as its own antioxidant, preventing free radicals from forming. It also helps protect and strengthen the skin and ensures proper brain function.
- Vitamin B6 – 10% of your D.R.I.Along with the rest of the B complex, vitamin B6 plays many roles in proper support of health. This particular B vitamin helps your body produce red blood cells, helps the nervous system function properly, and helps with the metabolization of carbohydrates.
These aren’t all the nutrients present in carrots, either – just the ones present in the densest concentrations. Carrots also contain notable amounts of manganese, vitamins B1, B2, and B3, pantothenic acid, copper, phosphorous and folate. The combination of these nutrients makes carrots extremely helpful at fighting a number of illnesses and diseases and reducing the symptoms of diseases that may already be present.
Conclusion: Carrots have a huge variety of nutrients available, and are among the highest sources in the world for vitamin A and biotin. This nutritional combination makes them very effective at fighting a number of illnesses.
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2. Carrots are great at helping maintain eye health
Carrots are good at fighting certain types of degenerative eye diseases – in particular, something known as macular degeneration. The macula is an oval-shaped, pigmented area near the center of the eye, and is responsible for the clearest vision a human can see. Thus, macular degeneration is hugely detrimental to a person’s vision.
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Beta-carotene, one of the phytonutrient antioxidants that carrots have in high amounts, is known to fight macular degeneration. Study subjects who consumed high amounts of beta-carotene were up to forty percent less likely to develop macular degeneration when compared to a group that consumed minimal amounts of the nutrient.
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Furthermore, beta-carotene can be considered a pro-drug for vitamin A. This means that, during metabolization, beta-carotene is turned into vitamin A. Vitamin A is actually a broad term that describes a whole bunch of micronutrients – and carrots contain several of these, which makes them an unbeatable source for this vitamin. Vitamin A fights bad vision by helping improve night vision, which has been shown to occur in greater frequency among people who are deficient in vitamin A.
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Carrots contain two potent phytonutrient antioxidants: lutein and zeaxanthin.These particular carotenoids are selective antioxidants that target the eyes in particular. This further helps reduce macular degeneration or other age-related eye problems that are caused by oxidation. Most types of diseases that occur with age are due, at least in part, to oxidation – this is why antioxidants are so popular. They quite literally make people live longer, by limiting the damage that time naturally causes to the human body.
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Conclusion: Carrots are great to help improve eyesight – like the old rumors suggest. It does this with two nutrients – beta-carotene, and vitamin A. Both are known to be effective at improving eyesight and limiting the effects of age-related eye illness.
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