Carrots are abundant with nutrients that benefits the human health. The carrot storage root is a good source of carotenoids, vitamins, and dietary fiber and is also rich in minerals and antioxidants.

In the storage root of carrot, 1.2–6.44% of the mass is dietary fiber, and 80.94% of the dietary fiber is cellulose.

Carrot is well known as being a good carotenoid provider. Carotenoids are natural pigments and were found to be present in all photosynthetic organisms. Additionally, carotenoids are known to be good for human health, especially in disease prevention. According to previous reports, carotenoids function in preventing cancer, cerebrovascular disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cataracts.

The antioxidant properties of carrots were thought to be the main factor for the abundant functions of carotenoids. In Krinsky’s research, eating fruit and vegetables that are rich in carotenoids was found to prevent many diseases, such as disorders related to the eye.

There are also many minerals in carrot roots, such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and iron. In the research of Nicolle et al., potassium was found to be the most abundant mineral in carrots. Among these minerals, the content of iron, sodium and magnesium is highly dependent on the carrot variety, whereas the content of potassium and calcium is not.

In addition, carrot roots are a good source of vitamin E and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

According to Li et al., sugars, glucose, fructose and starch are the main types of carbohydrates in carrot storage roots.

In a study, orange carrot varieties were found to be more abundant in the contents of sucrose and β-carotene and to be lacking in the contents of fructose and glucose.

Carrots are cultivated around the world. Carrot is a cool climate crop that can be sown in spring in temperate climate zones or in the autumn or winter in subtropical climate zones.

(Source of Information: nature.com)

Carrots in my Food – Recipes