The Many Benefits of the Raw Carrot

One carrot a day keeps estrogen dominance at bay

Despite our current food culture where we are constantly told to eat more raw vegetables, I am not a fan of including heaps of raw vegetables in the diet. And I don’t mean in the sense of flavour alone. Raw vegetables are a common cause of digestive issues, such as bloating and gas.

Additionally, certain raw vegetables have anti-thyroid effects. For example, raw cruciferous vegetables are high in compounds called goitrogens, which interfere with the production of thyroid hormone. Raw cabbage juice can be used as a home remedy to lower thyroid hormones in cases of hyperthyroidism because of its goitrogenic nature

While I believe that most vegetables are more beneficial when consumed cooked, the one superstar vegetable that is an exception to this rule is the raw carrot.

When thinking of the benefits of a raw carrot, most will automatically think that it has to do with vitamin A. But carrots do not contain vitamin A. Retinol is the true form of vitamin A and it can only be found in animal foods, like liver or eggs. Carrots contain beta-carotene which can act as a precursor to retinol, but most humans have a very limited ability to convert beta-carotene to retinol. Accounting for the conversion process, it takes about 12 μg of beta-carotene to get about the same amount of vitamin A as one would from 1 μg of retinol¹. For some people, it takes close to 30 μg of beta-carotene to create one μg of retinol. On top of that, we need to remember that some people are only able to absorb as little as 5% of all beta-carotene consumed.²