Boil carrots whole for increased health benefits

[Cantando]

Extract from:
Why Boiling Carrots Before Slicing Them Could Help Prevent Cancer (from The Herald )

It's a cooking tip that could save your life - boiling carrots before slicing them increases their anti-cancer properties by 25%, a new study has revealed.

Dr Kirsten Brandt, an agricultural scientist at Newcastle University, has discovered that the subtle difference between pre-slicing a carrot and boiling it whole could drastically affect the vegetable's nutritional powers.
Carrots cooked without being sliced have one quarter more of the anti-cancer compound falcarinol than those that are chopped up first, she told a conference yesterday.

An earlier study by Dr Brandt and colleagues at the University of Southern Denmark found that people whose diets were rich in falcarinol were around 30% less likely to develop cancer than those who ate none.
The naturally-occurring chemical is found mainly in carrots, but it is also present in smaller amounts in parsnips and celery. Falcarinol protects the vegetables from fungal diseases.
By slicing carrots before boiling them, however, diners may inadvertently be losing out on the health benefits as nutrients leech out into the water.
Dr Brandt said the discrepancy was down to the surface area that was exposed in the pot.

"By cooking them whole and chopping them up afterwards you are locking in both taste and nutrients, so the carrot is better for you all round," she said.
A blind taste test found that respondents overwhelmingly preferred the "boiled-before-cut" variety. Eighty per cent of those surveyed liked them more than pre-sliced carrots, apparently because the whole-cooked variety locks in more sugar and vitamin C and retains a sweeter, fresher flavour.
The findings showed that when carrots are heated, the composition changes. The heat kills cells and means they lose the ability to hold on to the water inside them, increasing the concentration of falcarinol in the carrots.
The heat also softens the cell walls, allowing water-soluble compounds such as sugar and vitamin C to escape via the surface of the tissue and resulting in the loss of other compounds such as falcarinol.

Since the carrot sheds water and sugar, the weight per carrot is reduced and it will take more carrots to fill a diner up.
Dr Brandt, who worked with researcher Ahlam Rashed at Newcastle University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, added that contrary to popular belief, cooked carrots could actually be better for people than raw ones.

She told The Herald: "The amount of falcarinol is slightly higher when eaten raw, but when you cook them it softens the tissues and makes it easier to get them out. You probably get more when you eat them boiled."
Emma Conroy, founder of the Edinburgh Nutrition health centre, said that cooking could also increase the vitamin delivery from carrots.
She said: "The problem is that carrot cells have tough walls that resist digestion. If you chew your way though a nice crunchy raw carrot, you'll only absorb about 5% of the beta-carotene it contains. You'll get 60% if it's been boiled, and 90% if it's also been blended.
"So carrot soup is ideal, while carrot juice allows you to get more beta-carotene from raw carrots."
Ms Conroy also said it could help to mix carrots with a little fat, such as butter or olive oil.
"Not only does it enhance the taste, but because many important nutrients from plants are fat-soluble you'll actually absorb fewer of them if your diet is low in fat," she said.
On the streets of Glasgow, the new research was given a mixed reception.
Jane Seatter, 53, said the findings might change the way she cooked carrots.
She said: "I do eat a lot of carrots, and I've never had cancer. It would make me more likely to cook them like that, but I tend to grate them anyway for soups."

However, for civil engineering student Stefan Blenkowski, 19, the research is likely to prove largely irrelevant.
"I guess this should make me more likely to eat them, but I probably won't," he said.
"They're my least favourite veg, or at least they're right up there with Brussels sprouts.
"I hate them - I only eat them at Christmas."

For good health the future's orange
Carrots have the highest content of beta-carotene (vitamin A) of all vegetables. Most of the goodness is either in the skin or slightly below it, meaning that peeled carrots are not as healthy. l The average person will eat 10,866 carrots in a lifetime, according to the World Carrot Museum. The longest carrot ever grown was 19ft 1in (5.84 metres), and the heaviest was 8.6kg. The carrot is a member of the parsley family, which also includes celery, parsnips, fennel, dill and coriander. The familiar orange variety of carrot has only been cultivated since the 1500s, with earlier species more often purple or yellow. Contrary to popular belief, carrots aren't especially good for rabbits. Instead, they should be fed with a plentiful supply of good quality hay and a mix of vegetables.

[aggie]

this changes my whole outlook on carrots...i always thought i had to eat them raw...cooked with a little olive oil... by the way...i had actually stopped eating carrots recently...the most convenient way was those little "baby" carrots...which i found out are bad for you...apparently they are punched out of regular carrots and there is a risk of contamination or something....my mom used to make a mean carrot soup...even as a small child i looked forward to it....

[ginkgo]

Well you can quadruple or quintuple the nutrients in carrots. That means that they will have 4 or 5 times the nutrition than they originally had. Now first of all what are we talking about? We are talking about the milligrams of a nutrient per pound. The heaviest thing in food is water. So dehydrate the carrot and it will weigh about a fifth of its original weight. So it will have 5 times the nutrition per pound. You then increase the cancer preventing properties by 5 times or 500%.

Cooking dehydrates the carrot to a lesser extent. The author of the Colon Health Handbook says that carrots have the best fiber for colon health and cooking it changes the fiber so it is not as good. Also raw food has enzymes that help you digest and assimilate the food. The saying is "You are not what you eat, but what you assimilate." So raw, living food is better for a living body. The chemistry (I was a chemist) is done in a dead, lifeless environment.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

The saying is "You are not what you eat, but what you assimilate." So raw, living food is better for a living body. The chemistry (I was a chemist) is done in a dead, lifeless environment.

Yes, I take on board what you have said about raw food. I know boiling vegetables destroys the vitamin C (and other nutrients) in them.

The study just seemed to focus on that one substance, falcarinol, which becomes 25% more bio-available when carrots are boiled, which isn't so great really. We could just eat 25% more raw carrots to match it! And, maybe, more does not mean better. There is no mention of how much we might need.

The study reminded me of lycopene, another anti-cancerous substance (found in tomatoes), which becomes more bio-available when the tomatoes are cooked.

I've not read the Colon Health Handbook, but I think I'll get it. It sounds like quite a key health area. I have just started to supplement with Acidophilus.