Carrots: Nutritional Heroes
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange or white, or red-white blend in color, with a crisp texture when fresh. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot.
It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It has been bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the same species, Wikipedia said. Carrots can be selectively bred to produce different colors.
Nutrition
Carrots are nutritional heroes, as they store a goldmine of nutrients. No other vegetable or fruit contains as much carotene as carrots, which the body converts to vitamin A. This is a truly versatile vegetable and an excellent source of vitamins B and C as well as calcium pectate, an extraordinary pectin fiber that has been found to have cholesterol-lowering properties, Carrot museum reported.
The carrot is an herbaceous plant containing about 87 percent water, rich in mineral salts and vitamins (B, C, D and E).
Cooked carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, a good source of potassium, and contain vitamin B6, copper, folic acid and magnesium. The high level of betacarotene is very important and gives carrots their distinctive orange color.
Carrots also contain, in smaller amounts, essential oils, carbohydrates and nitrogenous composites. They are well known for their sweetening, anti-anemic, healing, diuretic, re-mineralizing and sedative properties.
In order to assimilate the greatest quantity of the nutrients present in carrots, it is important to chew them well. An exception to the rule, they are more nutritious cooked than raw.
Good Health
Nutrition is the cornerstone of good health. As we go through life, there are 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.
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 everyday. Good health never came out of a bottle or capsule.
Carrots have many important vitamins and minerals. As a treasure-house of antioxidants, carrots help protect and nourish the skin. They contain a form of calcium easily absorbed by the body, in addition to copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and sulfur.
Old writers tell us that a poultice made of carrot root has been found to mitigate the pain of cancerous ulcers, and its leaves, applied with honey, cleanse running sores and ulcers. An infusion of the root was also used as aperients, Press tv wrote.
An infusion of the whole herb is considered an active and valuable remedy in treating edema, chronic kidney diseases and bladder infections.
Carrot tea, taken night and morning, is considered excellent for lithic acid or gouty disposition. A strong decoction is very useful in gravel and stone, and is good for flatulence.
Treating Osteoporosis
A GM carrot has been produced to help people absorb more calcium to help treat the brittle bone disease, osteoporosis.
The carrot, which has been genetically altered to make higher amounts of a calcium transporting protein, was developed by researchers at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
Today, they report the results of trials of the carrot on 15 men and 15 women, Telegraph said.
In people who ate the fortified “sCAX1“ carrot, urine measurements revealed a net increase in calcium absorption, say the researchers, who did the study in conjunction with Baylor College of Medicine to see if the super-carrot can help prevent such diseases as osteoporosis.
other links:
Fruits, Veggies May Strengthen Bones
Eat More Cereal
How to Eat Your Vitamins: Vitamin C
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