The carrots we buy and eat are the taproot of a plant of the Apiaceae typical of Eurasia, from where it comes from (today's Afghanistan) and can occur in nature in many different colors: there is a whole range that goes from white carrot, which resembles to a parsnip or a daikon, up to the black carrot, passing through the purple one, the red one, the yellow one, the Polignano carrot and the well-known orange carrot.
The inside of the pulp is variable and is not always related to the external color of the same carrot, so it can happen that a black carrot has a white, orange or yellow inside.
China is the largest producer and consumer country in the world, ten times the quantity produced in Russia or the United States. After a long period of domination of the common orange carrot, selected for its sweet taste and for the color that reminds and honors the Dutch nobles, we are increasingly able to buy and eat carrots of other colors, especially the black one (or vilola intense).
What are the main ones differences between these and the common orange carrot?
Characteristics of black carrots and differences with other varieties
Slowly the black carrot is making a comeback, as it was until 1600 when it was replaced by the sweeter orange carrot, rich in glucose.
The orange color indicates a large presence of beta-carotene and many others provitamine terpeniche which, like carotene, are metabolized into vitamin A or retinol, essential for the correct growth of children and very important for the eyesight and protection and health of the skin.
In black, purple and yellow carrots, part of the carotenoids are replaced by lutein, an antioxidant xanthophyll particularly present in green leafy vegetables such as spinach and black kale.
Remaining in the field of antioxidants, it should be emphasized how the black and purple carrots are extremely rich in phenols, especially anthocyanins and anthocyanins (responsible in vegetables of the blue and purple color), powerful antioxidant agents not present in orange carrots.
Properties of black carrots
This chemical structural framework confers on black carrots really interesting properties among which must undoubtedly be reported:
- Anticarcinogenic and preventive of colon cancer: several in vitro studies by the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Maryland have highlighted the chemopreventive effects of anthocyanins in black carrots, especially with regard to colon cancer, demonstrating how the growth of cancer cells is inhibited by these quinic compounds ;
- Strong anti-inflammatory power: proven in numerous cases indicated to combat the typical inflammations of rheumatoid arthritis cases. Black carrots have a higher anti-inflammatory power than carrots of other colors and in some traditional medicines they are considered the perfect substitute for aspirin.
- Protection of sight and eye healthAlthough black carrots do not reach the levels of blueberries and orange carrots, they also have a strong power of protection of the eye and sight. In particular, anthocyanins have been found to improve night vision, improve capillary circulation within the retina, reduce the risk of retinopathy due to diabetes and protect the eyes from some forms of pigmentation degenation.
- Prevention of Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system: the improvement of circulation and the strong antioxidant power of anthocyanins. Various studies from 2011 seem to prove this and black carrot extracts have often been recommended for Alzheimer's cases.
Carrot extracts
Carrot extracts black are in fact a powerful cure-all to keep one's immune system in shape, strong and young, contributing to general health, to that of circulation, sight, nervous system, colon.
Consumption on a daily basis of black carrot extracts, sometimes with the addition of other vegetables such as grapes, brittle, blueberries, cabbage, etc., it is extremely useful for safeguarding general health and maintaining the proper functioning of the metabolism. Seeing is believing.
3 fruit and vegetable extracts for your body
To learn more:
> Calories of carrots
