The Womens Section - Carrots
Why Women should eat Carrots: A high vitamin
A and Beta Carotene content mean that the following problems often suffered
by women can be helped through carrot consumption.
Beware during motherhood
People say that pregnant women should not eat carrots because they contain vitamin A and could induce malformations in the baby. Is this true? Doctors say no. Carrots are OK, but the vitamin supplements can be a factor.
Vitamin
A is an important essential nutrient that you can get from certain foods
and in multivitamins and supplements. In doses well over 10,000 units per
day, vitamin A has been found to induce fetal malformations of the face and
heart, and other problems. And in experimental animals, retinoids -- including
vitamin A -- have produced defects involving the central nervous system,
limbs and cardiovascular system, and behavioural
abnormalities.
Vegetables such as carrots contain provitamin A compounds called carotenoids, the most common of which is beta-carotene. When you eat carrots, your body converts only as much beta-carotene into vitamin A as it needs, so eating even a lot of beta-carotene-rich carrots will not increase the level of vitamin A in your blood.
The average healthy diet will not significantly raise your vitamin A level. But certain supplements contain much more than the safe daily dose limit of 10,000 international units (IU). If you take too much vitamin A in supplement form, or by ingesting certain foods that contain large amounts of it, such as liver, you could raise your blood level to the unhealthy range.
Most pre natal vitamin supplements contain 4,000 IU to 5,000 IU of vitamin A, which is about twice the recommended daily allowance (RDA) and less than half the safe maximum dose of 10,000 IU.
You could easily top 10,000 IU per day if you take additional supplements of high-dose vitamins or if you regularly eat liver, which contains on average of four to 12 times the RDA for vitamin A. Enriched foods such as fortified cereals or dairy products may also contain large doses of vitamin A.
To keep from ingesting too much vitamin A, avoid supplements that are enriched with it before and during pregnancy, except for the prenatal vitamins recommended by your doctor or midwife.
Taken in wine, or boiled in wine and taken, the seeds help conception. Strangely enough the seeds made into a tea have been used for centuries as a contraceptive. Even the well-known fifth century physician/herbalist, Hippocrates prescribed it as an abortifacient. When herbal lore such as this survives the test of time, there is a good chance there is some truth behind it. Click here to read more.
Breast Milk - Women who eat a lot of carrots during pregnancy and lactation may pass the flavor of those root vegetables to their babies. A 2019 review of studies in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found evidence indicating that flavors from anise, garlic and carrots from the maternal diet during pregnancy can flavor amniotic fluid and breast milk. Infants, the studies showed, can detect the flavors in breast milk within an hour of their mothers ingesting those foods.
Several of the studies reviewed found an interesting benefit of the garlic- or carrot-flavoured breast milk: the babies were more prone to accepting those flavors later in life and making them part of their diets.
No more pain during periods — Eat carrots
For any woman, ‘that time of the month’ seems really uncomfortable. Menstrual cramps, heavy or irregular bleeding, back pain everything makes life go up-side-down. However, there are a number of things that you can do to ease the discomfort and preserve your sanity. Here are 10 foods that you can eat during your periods to make life better.
Drinking carrot juice during menstruation is one of the easiest ways to deal with problems during menstruation. Eating raw carrots or drinking carrot juice can help — regularise blood flow, provide relief from pain and make you feel less fatigued during those days.
Here is why eating carrots can do wonders during your periods:
It is rich in iron: During menstruation you lose a lot of blood along with the internal lining of the uterus that sheds during every cycle. Loading up on iron can help you deal with the blood loss and supplement the body with iron resources. This is one of the many reasons why carrot is thought to be good for regularising irregular periods as well.
It is rich in beta carotene: Eating foods rich in beta carotene during menstruation is good because beta carotene converts into Vitamin A which helps to minimize the blood flow and control heavy bleeding.
It helps to deal with pain: Since carrots can help to regularise both heavy bleeding and also irregular periods, it helps the cramps to become less severe during those days. Here are 10 ways to deal with menstrual pain naturally.
How to have it: •Chew raw carrot sticks when your pain becomes unbearable. •Make carrot juice with fresh carrots, wash, peel, dice and put them in the juicer. Have the drink twice a day to get relief from menstrual problems. •Add carrot to your salads or curries even if your cycle is normal during those days to boost reproductive health and beat PMS fatigue.
Wondercup Breast
Cream - Many women use
"Wondercup" breast cream. Carrot was chosen
as a chief ingredient of wondercup because: " It contains components with
estrogenic activities, most notably beta carotene, which, like all
phytoestrogens, is a substance similar to female hormones, and therefore
able to regulate their production in the body, thus stimulating the natural
development of the breast, the main receptor of estrogens in the female
body."
This property is confirmed by the traditional use of carrot as a stimulant
to the production of mother's milk - indeed it acts on the breast by promoting
the development of the mammary glands.
Cosmetic use - Carrot has been regarded by the ancient healers as the 'herbal healer' of skin diseases. Indeed Vitamin A or betacarotene, of which carrot is rich, can be considered the main vitamins for the skin. Dry skin, with impurities, acne, difficulty in tanning, sunburns, eritema, premature appearance of wrinkles - all these things can depend largely on an insufficient intake of this vitamin.
Carrot is therefore very useful for the skin for its properties:
Anti-inflammatory, revitalizes and tones the skin. Used to treat dermatitis, eczema, rashes, as well as wrinkles (for its antioxidant properties which fight the damage to tissues caused by free radicals). Used also to promote the healing of cuts, abrasions and stubborn sores. Carrot seed diluted in wheatgerm oil is recommended as a suntan lotion. It is indeed used in some suncare lotions on the market. The underground part of carrot has anti-asthenic and anti-inflammatory properties and fights psoriasis.
Eye care - From early childhood we are taught to eat carrots to improve our eyesight. Carrot brings relief of eyestrain and inflammation of the eyes.
Nourishing - Carrot promotes healthy skin and is beneficial to areas of the skin that are regularly exposed to the sun and tend to blister and peel.
Moisturising - Carrot aids in repair of skin tissue and helps in the treatment of dry, chapped and scaling skin conditions.
The fresh root, finely chopped, can be used as a beauty mask for the face.
Weight Management
What is the secret to permanent weight loss? If you want to lower your risk for chronic diseases, eat less! No books to buy, no complex theories to unravel. Just eat moderate portions. Portion control doesn't sell books, but it works. Most people believe that they gain weight when they eat too much, because of heredity or because of ageing. First, you have to understand what actually causes weight gain. Find out the real reasons here.
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