CARROTS—NOT ONLY TASTY BUT ALSO NUTRITIOUS & LOW-CAL
I plant a new crop of carrots every spring as part of my vegetable garden. They’re easy to grow—just sow the seeds ¼ inch deep in loose sandy soil in a sunny location. After a month I begin pulling out baby carrots, wiping off a bit of dirt and munch-crunch. I plant plenty, so with regular thinning I can keep pulling bigger & bigger carrots out as the months go by.
The really cool thing is they can be left in the ground clear into and through winter. I just keep pulling out enough to use for a few weeks at a time. And voila—it’s spring again and time to plant a new crop.
You can keep whole carrots for several weeks in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
Preparing Carrots
Carrots will fit into almost any diet. You can take the larger carrots and slice them into sticks to eat just by themselves or with a hummus or yogurt-based dip. Personally, I make them into a mid-afternoon snack by dipping them into peanut butter. If you don’t like crunchy carrots, you can roast, boil or steam them and serve as a side dish. Of course, there’s carrot soup and carrot cake. And they’re an essential part of stews and minestrone.
Nutrition & Health Benefits
To give you the facts on the benefits of carrots, here are excerpts from the Cleveland Clinic online article by Anna Taylor, MS, RD, LD, CDE, Reasons Why Carrots Are Healthy For You:
Carrots are an incredibly healthy snack to munch on. The nutrition facts for ½ cup of raw carrots are:
- Total fat: 0.2 grams
- Sodium: 69 milligrams
- Total carbs: 9.6 grams
- Dietary fiber: 2.8 grams
- Sugar: 4.7 grams
- Protein: 0.9 grams
- Calcium: 33 milligrams
- Potassium 320 milligrams
- Iron 0.3 milligrams
They’re a great source of vitamin A. About ½ cup of raw carrots has 51% daily value of vitamin A. This vitamin A content actually comes from provitamin A carotenoids which help your body fight infections
They’re great for your eyes. Studies have shown that carotenoids, an antioxidant pigment found in carrots, may decrease your risk of age-related macular degeneration.
They can help reduce your risk of cancer. Carotenoids may help protect against prostate, colon and stomach cancer. Plus, one study noted that women who have high circulating levels of carotenoids may also have a reduced risk of breast cancer.
They’re good for your heart. High blood cholesterol and heart disease go hand-in-hand. However, studies have found that eating more carrots has been linked to lower cholesterol levels, thereby decreasing your risk for heart disease.
They can help you lose weight. Since ½ cup of carrots has only 41 calories, they can actually help you feel fuller longer and in turn, decrease the amount of calories you eat.
As you can see, carrots are an incredible snack to munch on by themselves or to include in your stews, soups, salads and even cakes.