Benefits of eating carrot

Carrot benefits

For a healthy diet, vegetables should be present in a person’s daily diet.
A particularly popular root vegetable is carrot - it is tasty and healthy in any form. Experts say that after heat treatment, even more carotene (provitamin A) appears in it. As for taste, carrots add a touch of tenderness to salads, soups, stews and fried foods.

As a cultivated plant, carrots have been known since ancient times. The first mention of a vegetable is found in the treatise "On Farming", written by the ancient Roman writer Cato more than two thousand years ago. The plant became widespread in Europe in the 17th century, when the French invented delicious carrot sauces. In our country, carrots appeared much earlier - peasants actively cultivated vegetable unpretentious to the harsh climate. In addition, the doctors of Ancient Russia discerned the healing properties of carrots and advised them to use healthy salads with fresh root vegetables for liver and heart diseases. In those days, the vegetable was stored in honey, and two useful products gave an excellent healing effect. Modern scientists have confirmed the theory of ancestors - a whole set of active substances was found in the plant.

Useful properties of carrots


In the minds of most people, the root crop is associated with carotene - provitamin A. Carrot contains about 80% of this useful substance and it does not break down during the heat treatment. When ingested, carotene turns into retinol (vitamin A) - this antioxidant slows down the aging process, strengthens the immune system, improves the condition of the skin and hair. It is important to know that the conversion of carotene to retinol is possible only in the presence of fats. That is why in warm salads and other dishes with carrots you need to add vegetable oil, cream, sour cream. 

In addition to carotene, carrots contain many other useful substances. In the root crop there are sugars and vitamins B, C, E, and in the seeds there are essential oils and daucarin. The latter has an antispasmodic and vasodilating effect, so the seed extract is useful for people with heart failure. Another useful feature is the normalization of the intestines. This is facilitated by vegetable water, which is abundant in fresh root vegetables.

Cooking Carrot


Most salad recipes prescribe boiled carrots. Bright orange cubes are an indispensable ingredient in vinaigrette , olivier, mimosa. Passivated carrots are added to almost all homemade soups, to vegetable and meat stews. And carrot pies are considered one of the most healthy baked dishes.

As for fresh carrots, it is very useful to eat at least one root vegetable daily. Finely grated vegetable, sprinkled with sugar or seasoned with honey - one of the favorite children's salads. Among the simplest dishes, one can distinguish grated carrots with garlic and mayonnaise (sour cream). Recently, spicy Korean carrots have won the hearts of Russians. Cooking is also not difficult - a thin vegetable straw is aged in a marinade of vegetable oil, vinegar, salt, sugar and hot red pepper. True, such a salad, like all spicy dishes, should be consumed in moderation.

If you want to please relatives with an unusual taste, prepare a salad with spinach . Grass with a slight acidity, fresh sweet carrot and delicate olive oil give an interesting combination. In addition, the dish is very useful - a plate of salad for breakfast contains a daily dose of the
necessary vitamins and minerals.

How to choose carrots in the store?


Today it is not necessary to have a cellar to eat fresh vegetables all year round - carrots can be bought in supermarkets and vegetable stores. True, not every counter has really fresh and strong vegetables - if the storage conditions are violated, the root crops become flabby, mold and rot appear in some places. In order not to look for good vegetables in a dirty box, you can buy root vegetables in a vacuum package. Pure chopped carrots are ready to eat, and in terms of freshness and content of nutrients, they are in no way inferior to plants that have been picked from the garden. You just have to open the package and show culinary imagination.

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