If you think carrots are rabbit food, we have a surprise in store for you today!
Yes, this root (which has root colors spanning the spectrum from blue to red) has a long health history, and according to the Carrot Museum in the UK – oh yes, there is such a place(!) – uses date back to the ancient Middle East, Greece and Rome.
Kicking back with some fresh, raw carrot juice is a wholesome way to good eyes, powerful polyphenols; cancer-fighting antioxidants, and brings a healthy glow into your cheeks.
Capture Some Carotenes!
Carrots are today’s the most important source of dietary beta-carotene. You only need an equivalent cup of carrot juice to knock back 400% of your daily requirement … plus you get a good shot of biotin, Vitamin K and potassium as well!
These also just happen to be the nutritional requirements for a bright complexion, beautiful hair, skin and nails. There’s a reason why the top beauty companies use carotenoids in their products. Just say’n.
In case you’ve been in a rabbit-hole, beta-carotene is the vegetable kingdom precursor to Vitamin-A retinol. And, Vitamin A helps us grow new skin, and body tissue; it (1) [3], including cancer, by increasing progesterone.
Our eyes crave Vitamin A — it’s actually what’s responsible for strong vision and letting us see in the dark! If you hate driving after sunset because of night blindness: your vitamin-A stores are probably low. Indeed, before I started juicing I had horrible night-vision. After juicing for about six weeks (including a carrot-juices every day), my night-vision returned, images became ‘crisper’ and colors acquired more texture and vividness!
Other indicators you may benefit from the beta-carotene boost in carrot juice:
- Got a cold that won’t quit?
- Suffer from sinusitis or inflamed mucus membranes?
- Excessive wrinkles, or acne?
Carrot Juice is a Whole Body Boost
According to Ayurveda – the medical system of Ancient India, (2), and antispasmodic; helpful for colon disorders, edema, skin disorders, reduces the risk of lung cancer, and it’s great way to rehydrate. They improve immunity, including the body’s ability to fight bacteria and toxins that enter through the mouth, but specific antibacterial minerals in carrots work to prevent cavities, and tooth decay, helping us have healthy teeth [1].
“Orange is the New Black”
Orange is a surprisingly powerful color for your diet goals if you’re interested in loosing some weight to look good in that swimming suit you’ll wear at the beach this Spring Break. A 2006 study discovered how carrot juice could really rev up our engines, metabolically speaking.
For ladies in particular, raw carrot juice has an incredible ability to escort excess estrogen from the body. And, since “ … bodies produce estrogen in a great variety of tissues, not just in the ovaries; and fat cells are a major source.
The tendency to gain weight after puberty is one of the reasons that women’s estrogen levels rise with aging throughout the reproductive years, though this isn’t the basic reason for estrogen’s lifelong growing influence, even in men” [2]. That’s right EVEN IN MEN!
In addition to estrogen reduction, carrot juice con help remove other endotoxins by restoring the proper ratio between cortisol and estrogen in the body [2,3]. These endo-toxic wastes we absorb from imbalanced intestinal bacteria have been shown to contribute to a variety of autoimmune problems, including thyroiditis, but improve with the addition of carrot and its juice, because they actually work to help restore gut health.
Carrots are also a resplendent source of the substance falcarinol, which, according to researchers at Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS) in 2009, was found to reduce the risk of cancer causing free-radical damage.
And that sunny-earthy juice can protect the cardiovascular system by increasing our antioxidant status, by introducing helpful carotenoids, vitamins C and E, and specifically phenolics, which decrease the risk of vascular diseases and cancer.
Anti-Aging
Studies in Korea show how carrot juice’s β-carotene can heal DNA damage, by (3). Here, varied participants drank 300 ml of 100% raw carrot juice everyday (beta-carotene, and placebo respectively) for eight weeks and then DNA damage levels were compared.
Guess what?
Both the carrot juice (and β-carotene) group showed improvement in reducing the levels of DNA damage reduction – in some case by more than 50%!
Here’s Where YOU Can Help, Dear Reader . . . become a health detective 
For two years, I’ve scoured the internet seeking sources that can back up the health and benefit claims of fruits, vegetables, and supplements (sometimes called “boost”).
In the chart below are the health claims I and others have discovered about carrots. Where you see a footnote, you’ll find a link to the source. If there is not a footnote, then that means that the specific health claim is made, but neither I or anyone I know has been able to locate sources of research or anecdote to backup the claim.
So, if you are aware of a direct source of research or anecdotes to back up the claims, please post them in the comments. I’ll check them out and if they meet our standards, I’ll make sure that they’re included in the next edition of the blog and give you a shout-out!
Reported Health Benefit Claims of Carrots:
These are just a few reasons why I always include carrots in at least one juice a day, and you should try it!
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Sources:
- Tirtha, Swami Sadashiva. The Ayurveda Encyclopedia Natural Secrets to Healing Prevention Longevity (2005) pg. 136.
- http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/epilepsy-progesterone.shtml
- http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/natural-estrogens.shtml
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10484191
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3192732/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16400329
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259297/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8144415
- Editors of “Vitamin A, Everyone’s Basic Bodyguard.” Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press
- Alegria C, Goncalves EM, Moldao-Martins M, et al. Peel removal improves quality without antioxidant loss, through wound-induced phenolic biosynthesis in shredded carrot. Postharvest Biology and Technology, Volume 120, October 2016, pages 232-239.
- Fujii H, Noda T, Sairenchi T, et al. Daily intake of green and yellow vegetables is effective for maintaining bone mass in young women. J Exp Med. 2009 Jun;218(2):149-54.
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