A new study shows alpha carotene found in carrots helps protect against cancer and heart disease.
Thanks liverock, I never knew of alpha carotene, only beta. I often buy 'baby' carrots as a healthy snack for me, hubby and my dogs.
Recently I read that the baby carrots found commonly in supermarkets are not small young carrots at all. They're ground-up and then pressed and formed to look like baby carrots. The nutrient content of these are supposed to be much less than regular carrots.
They said that the ones that were really small carrots were chemically treated to stunt their growth, don't know which is worse.
Background Much research has been conducted relating total carotenoids—and β-carotene in particular—to risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Limited data are emerging to implicate the important role of -carotene in the development of CVD or cancer.
Methods We assessed the direct relationship between -carotene concentrations and risk of death among 15 318 US adults 20 years and older who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Follow-up Study. We used Cox proportional hazard regression analyses to estimate the relative risk for death from all causes and selected causes associated with serum -carotene concentrations.
Results Compared with participants with serum -carotene concentrations of 0 to 1 �g/dL (to convert to micromoles per liter, multiply by 0.01863), those with higher serum levels had a lower risk of death from all causes (P < .001 for linear trend): the relative risk for death was 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.68-0.87) among those with -carotene concentrations of 2 to 3 �g/dL, 0.73 (0.65-0.83) among those with concentrations of 4 to 5 �g/dL, 0.66 (0.55-0.79) among those with concentrations of 6 to 8 �g/dL, and 0.61 (0.51-0.73) among those with concentrations of 9 �g/dL or higher after adjustment for potential confounding variables. We also found significant associations between serum -carotene concentrations and risk of death from CVD (P = .007), cancer (P = .02), and all other causes (P < .001). The association between serum -carotene concentrations and risk of death from all causes was significant in most subgroups stratified by demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, and health risk factors.
Conclusions Serum -carotene concentrations were inversely associated with risk of death from all causes, CVD, cancer, and all other causes. These findings support increasing fruit and vegetable consumption as a means of preventing premature death.
Perhaps I should point out it's consumption of yellow-orange, carrots, sweet potatoes or pumpkin and winter squash, and dark-green, broccoli, green beans, green peas, spinach, turnips greens, collards and leaf lettuce, vegetables, which have a high alpha-carotene content, was more strongly associated with a decreased risk of lung cancer than was consumption of all other types of vegetables.
WARNING: Studies done on beta carotene show that for smokers, only the veggies themselves reduce lung cancer. Taking a beta carotene supplement greatly increases lung cancer incidence in smokers.
Carrots and Cancer
Hybrid Mode
