Carrots
Carrots? The favorite food of Bugs Bunny hardly needs a description for they are well known and loved by even the youngest children in many countries. Carrots benefits are legendary. Bet your mother told you that eating carrots would keep your eyesight bright.
While we usually associate carrots with the color orange, in fact, carrots grow in a host of other colors including white, yellow, red, or purple, the latter being the color of the original variety. The carrot is a plant with a thick, fleshy, deeply colored root, which grows underground, and feathery green leaves that emerge above ground. It is known scientifically as Daucus carota, a name that can be traced back to ancient Roman writings of the 3rd century.
Carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family, named after the umbrella like flower clusters that plants in this family produce. As such, carrots are related to parsnips, fennel caraway, cumin and dill. There are over 100 different varieties that vary in size and color. Carrots can be as small as two inches or as long as three feet, ranging in diameter from one-half of an inch to over two inches. Carrot roots have a crunchy texture and a sweet and minty aromatic taste, while the greens are fresh tasting and slightly bitter.
The carrot can trace its ancestry back thousands of years, originally having been cultivated in central Asian and Middle Eastern countries. These original carrots looked different from those that we are accustomed to today, featuring deep purple coloring, ranging from lavender to deep eggplant. This coloration was a reflection of the anthocyanin phytonutrient pigments these carrots had. In pre-Hellenic times, a yellow-rooted carrot variety appeared in Afghanistan and was further cultivated and developed into an earlier version of the carrot we known today. Both types of carrots spread throughout the Mediterranean region and were adopted by the ancient Greeks and Romans for their medicinal use.
| Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1/2 cup strips |
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| Amount Per Serving | |
| Calories: 25 | |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat: 0.15g | 0% |
| Cholesterol: 0mg | 0% |
| Sodium: 42mg | 1.75% |
| Total Carbohydrate: 5.84g | 1.95% |
| Dietary Fiber: 1.7 | 0% |
| Sugars: 2.89g | |
| Protein: 0.57g | |
| Vitamin A 203.82% | Vitamin C 6% |
| Calcium 2% | Iron 1% |
| *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. |
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