Another day and another opportunity to learn something. You have to expose your mind to new information every day and read about new things to stay sharp. When it comes to dementia, help yourself in advance by regularly reading, solving crosswords, sudoku puzzles, and learning learning learning. Today, I will offer my assistance and present you with educational material about carrots. Why carrots? Well, you are just going to read the post to find out :)
CC0 image, Pixabay, author: jill111
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
–attributed to Hippocrates
I wrote "attributed" on purpose because that line is nowhere to be found in more than 60 texts of Corpus Hippocraticum. There are many misquotes on the internet and I always try to be certain when quoting people who are dead and can not defend their views, it is only respectful. Anyway, you can read the paper about that being a misquote here: Let not thy food be confused with thy medicine: The Hippocratic misquotation by Diana Cardenas. But to get back to my point, I am more concern with the statement itself then by who actually said it first.
The truth is, humans need food for obvious reasons and you being hungry is not the reason. Hunger is our bodies mechanism to alert us that we need nourishment. The human body needs vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins etc. in order to function properly. We all need energy and that energy comes from chemical processes that go on inside our bodies, processes that need chemicals from food. Deficiency in vitamins, minerals and other chemicals may lead to serious illness and while it may not make you a superhero and exclusively keep you healthy, having a balanced diet, with all nutritarians that your body needs, will aid your body in proper functioning. Want to have bigger odds of staying healthy? Eat healthy food (and hope that your genetics do not screw you over).
Interested in how that story about carrots being good for eyesight started? During the World War II, the British Royal Air Force managed to gun down German aircraft. A rumor started how carrots gave their fighter pilots sharp vision and accuracy. Why? The radar was responsible for their success against the Luftwaffe but the British obviously wanted to keep that a secret from their enemies. Some sources say that the Air Force did not start the rumor but did not mind it either and provided no opposition to it until years later. The question, however, still remains, are carrots truly able to improve eyesight?
There is still a matter of fact over fiction. The fact is, yes, carrots are good for eyesight but not exclusively and not all the time. They are good because of their help in the production of vitamin A (retinol) which is important for many things including growth and differentiation of target tissues, proper functioning of the reproductive organs, modulation of immune function, and proper functioning of the retina.
What role does beta-carotene play?
Vitamin A helps the eye convert light into a signal that can be transmitted to the brain. This allows people to see under conditions of very low light. The problem arises when the body does not get enough vitamin A which can lead to cornea almost disappearing. It is estimated that between 250,000 to 500,000 children become blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency and those from Nepal and India are affected the most. Supplements of the vitamin or beta-carotene have been shown to improve night vision and help with sight problems but what is vitamin A, anyway? It is a fat-soluble vitamin necessary for health. Its deficiency can cause disorders of vision, skin, bone, and immunity. The recommended daily allowance for it is 300 to 700 μg for children and approximately 700 to 900 μg for adults. Higher doses can be toxic, leading to a constellation of signs and symptoms as well as liver injury, jaundice, enlargement of the liver and spleen, portal hypertension and cirrhosis.
β-carotene is the precursor of vitamin A in the human diet. It is not only responsible for giving carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and other yellow or orange vegetables their color but it also structurally related to vitamin A. Two molecules of vitamin A are formed from one molecule of beta-carotene and the process happens in our liver while the breakdown of beta-carotene occurs in the walls of the small intestine.
Structural formula and space-filling model of the β-carotene, public domain images from Wikipedia 1 and 2
The efficiency of conversion of beta-carotene to retinol depends on the level in the diet. If you eat more beta-carotene, less is converted. Once we have enough beta-carotene in our bodies it will no longer convert to vitamin A but be stored in fat reserves in the body. Too much beta-carotene can make you turn yellow, but it is a harmless symptom that is not a health concern. There is no specific amount of carrots you should eat because our bodies are different so the amount that I need to eat does not have to be the same for you. Just keep in mind that most eye problems come from vision-impairment caused by genetics, aging or diabetes and cannot be fixed with an infusion of beta-carotene.
Do not rely on carrots alone. Instead, eat leafy greens too for improvement of your eyesight. Spinach, kale or collard greens are full of lutein and zeaxanthin that will help protect your eyes by filtering high-energy wavelengths of visible light that can damage the retina. They will also help to protect against age-related macular degeneration which is the major cause of blindness in the elderly. Orange vegetables? Sure. Green vegetables? Even better. Combining orange and green? The best solution.
I suggest that you take a look at some of the articles from sciencedirect.com about beta-carotene here: Beta Carotene and if you are interested in all the things that will keep your eyes healthy, there is a great paper about it that talks about vitamins C, E, β-carotene, Zinc, Omega-3 fatty acids, lutein, and zeaxanthin. It is available here:
Nutrients for the aging eye by Helen M Rasmussen and Elizabeth J Johnson
A team of scientists (led by Philipp Simon from the University of Wisconsin-Madison) has sequenced the carrot genome which provided insight into the vegetables evolutionary origin, its nutrition, and, of course, its vibrant orange color. It is considered to be one of the most complete vegetable genome assemblies known. By comparing genetic sequences of carrots to different plants, they determined that carrots diverged from potatoes and tomatoes around 90.5 million years ago. The carrot genome doubled the amount of DNA somewhere around the time the dinosaurs went extinct (between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods). The first cultivated carrots were traced to the Middle East and Central Asia, around 1,100 years ago and those domesticated carrots were mainly yellow and purple, not orange. Read that line again... Purple! They were purple!
What was the biggest find?
ORANGE COLOR
CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Maklay62
They found a gene that controls levels of carotenoids that are associated with color and nutrition. Enhanced breeding has led to more intense orange color and more nutritious crops and carrots we have today contain 50% more carotene than they did back in the 1970s. Why is this important? Since vitamin A deficiency is still a global health issue, it may be possible to insert that gene into other staple root vegetables such as cassava that is widely grown in Africa and in that way help solve the problem.
What exactly did they discover?
The team sequenced the DNA of 35 different carrots in the Daucus genus (both wild and cultivated specimens). Of the 32,113 genes in the genome, 10,530 of them are unique to carrots. Two genes have been identified as responsible for the accumulation of pigments in the roots of carrots. The previously described gene called Y is responsible for the difference between white carrots and ones that are yellow or orange, and there is a new candidate gene called DCAR_032551 that is linked to the unusually high beta-carotene accumulation in the root. The interesting thing is that the carotenoid buildup was actually a defect in the metabolic pathway related to light-sensing. We all know how plants make their own food through photosynthesis. That includes light. Roots are not exposed to light so what gives? These genes were probably selected for domestication by early farmers simply by chance.
"We found that the Y-gene accounts for the accumulation of orange and yellow carotenoid pigments in carrot roots. It is one of two genes responsible for converting ancestral wild-type white carrots to orange ones...We expect the immediate users of the whole genome sequence will be public and private plant breeders who will use it for carrot disease resistance and seed production traits."
-Professor Phillip Simon
You can read the full article, published in the Nature Genetics, here:
A high-quality carrot genome assembly provides new insights into carotenoid accumulation and asterid genome evolution
by Massimo Iorizzo, Shelby Ellison, Douglas Senalik, Peng Zeng, Pimchanok Satapoomin, Jiaying Huang, Megan Bowman, Marina Iovene, Walter Sanseverino, Pablo Cavagnaro, Mehtap Yildiz, Alicja Macko-Podgórni, Emilia Moranska, Ewa Grzebelus, Dariusz Grzebelus, Hamid Ashrafi, Zhijun Zheng, Shifeng Cheng, David Spooner, Allen Van Deynze & Philipp Simon
Of course! Carrots are full of nutrients your body needs. Eat them as much as you like... If your skin turns orange, you should probably stop but hey, if it does not bother you, keep on eating them even then. You can eat them raw or thermally processed, put them in your salads, main dishes, drinks, and even deserts.
To read more about this topic, check out these REFERENCES:
Seeing Through the Carrot Myth from mcgill.ca
Fact or Fiction? Carrots Improve Your Vision from scientificamerican.com
Vitamin A: β-Carotene from chem.libretexts.org
Retinol from pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Meet Your Carrot from thescienceexplorer.com
Scientists Have Discovered Why Carrots Are Orange from iflscience.com
Carrot genome reveals the roots of its orange colour and high nutrition from ABC science
Until next time,
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!
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- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- title pictures are made by me using the CC0 image from pixabay that can be found here
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Wonderful read! So much information, I did not know carrots were originally purple! Interesting what genetic modification can do....it would be interesting to trace that information with many of the popular vegetables. But, to be able to insert this modification into vegetables which are available in India and Nepal, that would be quite a valuable achievement. Thanks for sharing, sounds like using carrots in my morning juice each morning is a smart idea :)
It is a smart idea indeed, keep using them! I do hope that the gene will be successfully used to help with some problems in certain countries.
Great read and it prompted me to actually make some carrot juice. Mixed with freshly pressed orange juice it's pretty tasty actually.
Now I definitely don't regret purchasing a juicer :P
A juicer will probably never be your regret :) Combining orange with carrot never crossed my mind, I will have to try that :)
I love me some carrots, for sure :) Thank you for your in depth Post and the info. in it @zen-art
I am glad you liked it and learned something 💚
I wish I was more into Carrot....but it tastes too weird for me! Do you know if there is any other veggie that could produce the same effect? Maybe I can eat something else for substitution..
Orange veggies should have the same or similar effect, try pumpkins :)
You are stepping on the rainbow colours with yet another great post, @zen-art. After the vivid yellow banana, here is a vibrant carrots orange. It's a fact :-) ...among the healthy facts I love.
Pssst about the rainbow thing, psssssst!!! :D
Hahahahahah - never heard a thing!!!!
This was a good read thank you. I heard that carrots where good for the eye sight. I used to drink carrot juice to try to improve my eyesight when I was living a period without glasses an for some reason I can't remember didn't want to buy ones. I started to notice that it was effecting me with headaches so I drunk a lot of carrot juice. But I guess nothing beats glasses after all 😂🥕
Glasses can even help your eyes, not only assist them. I used to have -1.5 and -1.75 and now have a perfect eyesight because a doctor showed me some exercises to do with glasses. It took me 2 years of doing them but little by little, my eyes got fixed
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TrufflePigI was not aware of the connection of Carrots with eye -sight, I knew carrots are very good for boosting immunity. For vision I have relied more on green leafy specially Parsely. Anyways Carrot, Parsley and Avocado with a flavor of mint mix juice is my daily vitamin dose which I love and enjoy having it.
That is a great mix, very healthy for you and full of good stuff!
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The history behind it is really interesting. I read somewhere that the British government started spreading the carrot/eye connection as propaganda to get people interested in growing their own garden, because it was difficult to import food.
Who knows how it started back then, rumors are hard to track nowadays and even harder when they were historic :) The good thing is, maybe it did make people grow their own gardens, that is always a good thing.
This is really interesting, thanks for the information
It was my pleasure, glad you like it
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A comprehensive "question all the old urban legends" post which is really helpful. No, carrots alone are way not enough. But yes - super good nutrition, provided you choose and eat organic.
There is some truth in some legends but in all and not about everything hihi :) I am glad you enjoyed the read 💚
shoves carrots in eyes
You lied to me.. LOL
Interesting article, upvoted!
🤣🤣🤣
Sorry, I do that sometimes 🤣
You might want this title to be fact or fiction. Just sayin'.
LOL, I guess we now know who is actually paying attention :) Thanks, I edited the title, much love 💚
Lovely article and oh so much research.
From my experience, the sweetest for juicing are California carrots.
Also, if you eat too much in the form of carrots your skin can turn yellow.
Here is a link I looked it up to be sure I was not thinking something crazy which has happened to me on occasion. https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/can-much-betacarotene-cause-yellow-skin-2041.html
Don't believe Bugs Bunny. I found out carrots are bad for rabbits according to the RSPCA too much sugar.
Stay happy our favorite little fairy @zen-art
Bugs Bunny has been lying to me my entire childhood???? WHAT???? :D
Thanks for the info 💚
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You just toatally blew my mind.
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I am glad to be of service ;)
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Wow! Very informative post on the health benefits of carrots. Personally, I love carrots but they are also high in sugar content which for me being on a ketogenic diet I have to use carrots sparingly. But, I do consume some carrot on a regular basis. Getting my vitamin-A and retinol. Thanks for this post I enjoyed reading it! - Dr. Smiley
I will tell you this much from experience, you can eat so much carrots that you can actually turn your skin tone orange.
It happened to me when I was a baby and my mother was feeding me the baby food that was mashed carrots all the time since I would eat it without any issues. The immediate family didn't notice the change in skin color since they saw me everyday but only when my aunt came to visit did anyone realize it. She said there is something wrong with his color and the next week my mother took me to the doctor and he confirmed I needed to back off on my carrot intake, my body couldn't process all the beta carotene.
I might also mention that I had twenty twenty vision until way into my 50's , it may not have had a thing to do with carrots , since I quit eating veggies in my early twenties.
But to many carrots can cause skin color issues.