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Page 67
| Carrots |
| Lower blood cholesterol |
| Improve night vision |
| Help protect against food poisoning |
| May help protect against cancer |
| May help prevent heart disease and stroke |
| Your mother probably told you to eat your carrots to keep from going blind: a slight exaggeration, although carrots do help maintain night vision. But it's hard to exaggerate their other benefits. |
| Carotene Kings |
| Carrots are a terrific source of the antioxidant beta-carotene; in fact, they are by far the best commonly consumed source of this essential nutrient. Just one raw carrot contains 13,500 IUs of beta-carotene, more than 250 percent of the RDA. High beta-carotene intake has been shown to decrease the rates of bladder, cervix, prostate, colon, larynx, and esophageal cancers by up to 50 percent, and to reduce the rate of postmenopausal breast cancer by 20 percent. Carrot consumption has also been shown to reduce the rate of lung cancer. |
| Until recently, scientists believed that beta-carotene alone was responsible for the fact that carrot eaters are far less likely to suffer from certain cancers; thus they figured that putting beta-carotene in a pill would produce the same effects. This proved not to be the casemuch to the dismay of vitamin manufacturers. |
| Now scientists theorize that other substances in carrots may play a vital role as well. One prime contender is alpha-carotene, a lesser-known anti- |
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