What Are Carrots Good For?

One of the most powerful ingredients in your home may also be the most common. Introducing the humble carrot: a vegetable that’s packed with more vitamins and minerals than it gets credit for. It’s probably already sitting in your fridge, making for an easy addition to your next meal. 

With a wide range of built-in health benefits, including more carrots in your everyday meals are a great way to make sure your body’s equipped with the nutrients it needs for optimal wellbeing. If you’re at the starting line of menopause or somewhere in the midst of it, incorporating more carrots into your diet is one simple way you can support your health during this season. 

Here’s why carrots deserve a star place in our dietary intake.

Carrots are rich in beta-carotene

Carrots are a leading vegetable contender when it comes to their high beta-carotene content. Beta-carotene, a plant pigment that offers rich antioxidant properties, is a form of carotenoids. It’s also where carrots get their healthy orange colour from.

When we eat food that contains beta-carotene, it’s then converted internally into vitamin A. Vitamin A is responsible for all kinds of biological functions, including:

• Maintaining high-quality vision
• Supporting our immune systems
• Promoting healthy, strong skin
• Protecting cells from damage caused by harmful free radicals (thanks to beta-carotene’s antioxidant profile)

Carrots can support great digestive health

Alongside the benefits of their beta-carotene contents, carrots are also a fantastic source of high fibre content. These high fibre levels means carrots can play a key role in supporting strong digestive health, providing dietary fibre that’s integral to maintaining a healthy, happy and functional digestive system.Carrots can help with providing bulk to the stool, offering an easy way to maintain good digestive health through regular intake. 

The fibre in carrots also helps to support beneficial gut bacteria, promoting diversity of gut microbiome. Not only are they powerful for our guts, but carrots can also support enhanced immune functionality and contribute to improvements to our mental health.

It’s the distinctive combination of soluble and insoluble fibres in carrots that mean they’re so effective in helping to prevent digestive conditions, such as…

• Gastrointestinal Reflux Disease (GERD): The alkaline levels in carrots can be pivotal in helping to neutralise stomach acids, offering relief to those who are suffering from acid reflux. 
• The alkaline content in carrots can play a pivotal role in neutralising stomach acids, giving relief to individuals who are suffering from acid reflux.
• Gastric ulcers: Thanks to the high amounts of vitamins and minerals in carrots, they’re a great source of crucial nutrients that can protect the stomach lining, leading to a reduction in the risk of gastric ulcers developing down the line.
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome: this is where the mixture of soluble and insoluble fibres in carrots 
• With a mixture of soluble and insoluble fibre, carrots can help to manage IBS through adding bulk to the stool and improving bowel regularity.
• Leaky Gut Syndrome: as the fibre in carrots can help to stimulate beneficial gut bacteria, a healthier gut environment can support the management of leaky gut syndrome, reducing the likelihood of toxins and bacteria leaking through the intestinal wall.
• Colorectal cancer: As fibre can help to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, this is another area where carrots shine in supporting our health.
• Hemorrhoids and anal fissures: In need of support for some stool softening? Carrot’s fibre content can be a great support, helping to prevent the straining that can lead to challenges with hemorrhoids and anal fissures.

Carrots can support better heart health

Alongside their rich digestive health support, carrots can also be of great benefit to a healthy heart, thanks to their rich nutritional profile.

Carrots are rich in potassium, a mineral that’s crucial to maintaining heart function. Potassium acts as an electrolyte, helping to control the balance of fluids in the body while maintaining the heart’s rhythm. It also supports the relaxing of blood vessels, reducing blood pressure and the associated risk of cardiovascular diseases. 

The high fibre levels in carrots can also help to lower the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels through their ability to bind to bile acids in your digestive system and remove them from your body. This forces the level to turn to its cholesterol reserves, creating higher production of bile acids and reducing overall cholesterol levels.

Carrots also contain phytochemicals, compounds that have been linked to heart disease prevention through their ability to reduce inflammation, inhibit platelet aggregation, and serve as antioxidants. 

By adding a regular helping of carrots into your meals, you can give your heart crucial support for optimal everyday health, as well as contributing to its longevity.

Carrots provide support for bone health

If you’re looking for nutritional support for bone health during menopause, carrots have also got this crucial area covered. Weakened bone health is linked to declining oestrogen levels, meaning many women going through menopause at a heightened risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures throughout this life stage. Nutrient-rich foods, however, can be a crucial support for fighting the impact of reduced oestrogen on bone health. 

Vitamin K is a key nutrient in carrots that plays a pivotal role in bone metabolism. It supports the body as it absorbs and uses calcium, the mineral that forms the framework of bones. Without enough of it, our bodies aren’t able to use that calcium effectively, reducing their ability to build and maintain strong bones.

This means carrots can be a great source of support for healthy, protected bones, throughout menopause and beyond. By increasing the ability of calcium to contribute to bone health, they’re an easy way to support our bodies through this changing season.

Carrots are rich in antioxidants

When it comes to key sources of support throughout menopause, antioxidants are high on the list. Antioxidants provide a range of nutrients crucial to our daily functions and wellbeing, and are necessary in the diets of menopausal women to protect their ongoing health. 

Menopause can cause the body to become more susceptible to oxidative stress, which takes place when antioxidant defenses in the body aren’t able to repair the damage caused by free radicals. Through incorporating regular carrot servings into your diet, they can be of service in counteracting this stress through their antioxidant properties. 

Not only can carrots help to increase antioxidant defence capacities, but they can also help to reduce the impact of some menopausal symptoms. Hot flushes and night sweats are believed to be linked to oxidative stress, meaning antioxidant-rich foods have a key role to play in providing necessary relief for menopausal women.

Conclusion

While a single food type or nutrient won’t counteract all of menopause’s symptoms, building a diet that’s rich in key nutrients can help to support your body through this intense period of change and transition. Whether you’re baking them in a cake, including them in a stew, or eating them raw as a crunchy snack, carrots should be a staple of your everyday diet throughout every stage of menopause.

Learn more about how to support your body through menopause’s changes at the Australian Menopause Centre. Our friendly, supportive team is ready to assist you in navigating your symptoms and living to your richest capacity in every season.