Healthy eating

Some people really like to hit the health kick, and aren’t aware that overdosing on natural delicious food can be as harmful as not getting enough. Take carrots for instance.

The humble carrot grows underground and takes about 6 to 8 weeks until it is ready to harvest. When you slice across a carrot so that it turns into orange rings, you can see concentric circles and guess what, our eyes have those same concentric circles, don’t they?

So, what body part are carrots nutritionally great for? You guessed it! Your eyes. Why, because they contain high levels of Vitamin A. Interestingly enough, Vit A deficiency affects your eyesight, especially contributing to night blindness, your skin’s health, and the colour of your skin which goes yellowish because the liver is struggling to function.

Now for the flipside, overdosing on vitamin A can cause the same symptoms as a deficiency, AND, if you overdose badly enough, it can kill you because your liver cannot process the high levels! I remember having a juice in a cafe years ago, and the woman serving me proudly told me she drank 3 or 4 glasses of carrot juice a day!! Good golly Miss Molly!! I quickly told her how dangerous that was, and she admitted that her skin was starting to go yellow and decided she would stick to 1 glass a day.

The humble and delicious medium size carrot also contains Potassium – 183 mg, Calcium – 23 mg, Phosphorus – 23 mg, Magnesium – 8 mg and Iron – 0.27 mg, along with Vit A as stated above.

Doesn’t it make you want to crunch into a delicious sweet juicy carrot now?

Nutritional values obtained from: http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/vegetables-nutrition-chart.html