Carrots are a great thing, and almost everyone on Earth knows it, but how to "eat them and turn them into nutrition" is something many people are not very clear about. There are some misconceptions about eating carrots in life, let's take a look. 1. Vegetables are more nutritious when eaten raw because their nutrients don't escape.
Wrong. Although carrots are a vegetable, the carotenoids they contain are fat-soluble. They need to be combined with lipids to be enzymatically broken down. Carotenoids are relatively stable during cooking. Basic nutritional science shows that Chinese stir-frying methods can preserve 76% to 94% of them. Therefore, eating carrots raw makes it difficult for the body to absorb carotenoids due to the lack of fat, leading to waste. By the same logic, stir-fried liver and clear-fried chicken liver are more beneficial for the absorption and utilization of vitamin A than simply boiled liver in salt water. 2. Eating too much vitamin A can lead to poisoning, so carrots cannot be eaten all the time.
Wrong. An excessive intake of vitamin A (from cod liver oil, or the liver of a dog that has overwintered) can lead to poisoning symptoms, mainly manifested as loss of appetite, excessive excitement, bone pain, limited limb movement, sparse hair, enlarged liver, muscle stiffness, itchy skin, headache, and dizziness. Adults can get poisoned by taking more than 15,000 micrograms of retinol equivalents daily for a long time. However, after a large intake of carrots, besides the accumulation of carotenoids in the skin fat which turns the skin yellow (this disappears after stopping consumption), no other toxicity has been found. On the contrary, the anti-cancer effect of carotenoids is receiving more attention than that of vitamin A because they also have antioxidant effects. Eating carrots regularly can reduce the incidence of lung cancer, stomach cancer, and prostate cancer. 3. All green, red, and yellow vegetables and fruits contain carotenoids and can be a source of vitamin A.
Wrong. Indeed, they all contain carotenoids, but their biological efficacy is different. Among them, beta-carotene has the highest efficacy, with 6 micrograms equivalent to 1 microgram of vitamin A. Other carotenoids are less than half of that. Zeaxanthin, capsanthin, and lycopene cannot be broken down to form vitamin A at all.
Therefore, when we eat carrots, we should pay attention to the cooking methods. For example, stir-fried shredded carrots, carrots and yam slices stir-fried with meat, beef stew with carrots and potatoes, etc., can all allow beta-carotene to be absorbed by the body. Eating them raw only adds to the burden of the digestive system, and even the "little ginseng" will just "pass through the gut".