The Nutrition of Carrots

Aren’t carrots pretty? It’s nice that some foods that are good for you are also attractive and appetizing. Now that we have had some success at growing a small patch of carrots, the nutritional benefits of home grown, non-chemicalized carrots can be at our fingertips, either raw, cooked fresh into a meal, canned or dehydrated. Another added benefit is the possibility of using them as a supplement to our animal feed.

Since we are growing another fall crop of carrots and hope to be able to eat them fresh through the winter, another experiment and learning opportunity, I will start off with the nutrients for raw carrots.

1 cup of raw carrots include the following nutrients.

• calories 17.6
• carbohydrates 3.9g
• protein 0.8g
• vitamin A alone is 6372 IU

• vitamins E, C, K
• folate
• calcium
• phosphorus
• magnesium
• potassium
• sodium
• omega-3 & omega 6 fatty acids

Compare that to 1 cup of canned, sliced carrots with salt.

• calories 28.7
• carbohydrates 6.6g
• protein 0.7g
• vitamin A alone is 15085 IU

• vitamins E, C, K
• folate
• calcium
• phosphorus
• magnesium
• potassium
• sodium
• omega-3 & omega 6 fatty acids

I was surprised at the increase in most nutrients from the cooked carrots. I always thought it would be less because of the leaching of nutrients into the water, although this list does include the liquid. The only reason I can come up with is that maybe you can get more cooked carrots vs. raw carrots in a one cup serving.

We are very curious to see how our fall crop of carrots turn out. So far they are growing pretty well and weren’t affected by our first frost. We will be having a few more frosts over the next week and I expect the cooler temperatures to slow down the growing process. They were very slow to get started, but I planted them when the weather was still pretty hot and they didn’t seem to appreciate the temperatures in the 90′s. 

 

The opportunity to learn new things that will benefit both man and beast is an enjoyable experience for us. Not only that, but it could mean a few more things to increase our chances of survival should things collapse and we have to live by the sweat of our brows, instead of by the availability of food on the store shelves. And besides that, we prefer to eat food that has been grown without any chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides. We are grateful we have the freedom to choose.

Until next time – Fern

P.S. Patrice Lewis, from Rural Revolution, has started doing podcasts about homesteading and prepping over at The Survival Mom Radio Network. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to them, we would recommend you do so. They are informative, encouraging and convey the message Patrice brings us regularly in a way that the printed word just can’t project. We enjoy listening to them weekly.