Why carrot juice? Well, just one look at the bright orange carrot is enough to know these lovely veggies are jam packed with eye-health-protecting, free-radical-fighting, skin-clearing beta-carotene. Not to mention they add just the right touch of sweetness to any juice recipe.
And they’ve been used for their health benefits for a long, long time. Ancient Greeks ground up these root vegetables and used the juice as an energy drink – carrot juice anyone? Early Romans boiled them in a cauldron and inhaled the steam to get rid of impure thoughts. Anglo-Saxons brewed a beverage from carrots that they believed prevented insanity-causing demons from visiting them.
And whereas there’s been no research conducted on the carrot’s ability to ward off visiting demon or impure thoughts, there’s been plenty of evidence found on the various health benefits of carrots. Here’s a list of the heap of goodness you get from every cup of fresh carrot juice!
4 Crazy Carrot Juice Benefits
By juicing fruits and vegetables you obtain the highly nutritious elixir without the indigestible and bulky fiber. Drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices provides the body vital nutrients, in the quantities needed to have a dramatic effect on physical and mental wellbeing.
Carrots are one of the most beneficial and versatile ingredients you can add into a fresh juice. Their natural sweetness makes them especially tasty, extremely useful if you are new to juicing or trying to get your kids into it. Packed full of health promoting nutrients, carrots do so much more than help you see in the dark.
Like what, you ask? Here’s everything you need to know about the benefits of carrot juice!
Excellent for eye health
Of course you already knew this was coming – after all, carrots and eyesight go together like peanut butter and jelly. But have you ever stopped to wonder why?
Well, apart from giving carrots their bright orange color, beta-carotene is an antioxidant found in these root vegetables that is converted into vitamin A when metabolized by the liver. And getting enough Vitamin A is great for your eyes since this crucial vitamin supports cornea health, maintains ideal visual function and keeps the eyes resilient against diseases like macular degeneration, conjunctivitis, chronic dryness and even cataracts. It even helps boost your night vision.
Oh and did you know that vitamin A is especially beneficial for those struggling with blemished and a must-have for those juicing for acne?
Seriously nutritious
It’s not just vitamin A, either – carrots are packing a dose of vitamins and minerals that benefit the body.
And this is so important since despite being overfed, many people are clinically undernourished: lacking the essential nutrients required for optimal wellbeing. Modern farming practices have demineralized the soil and we overcook our food and industrially process the nutrients right out of it.
The sheer volume of fruit and vegetables required to provide your body with sufficient nutrients can be overwhelming. Which is where juicing the humble carrot comes in. This orange root veggie is full of:
- Pro-vitamin A, also called beta-carotene, which is an essential nutrient that the body cannot produce by itself
- Carrots are also high in: Vitamins C, D, E, K, B1 and B6
- Carrots are a yummy source of essential minerals that support everything from bone health to cardiovascular health, like Calcium, which keeps bones strong and heart muscle healthy, Phosphorus, which makes skin softer and teeth stronger and Magnesium, which helps you absorb nutrients and improves memory
Promotes gentle cleansing
Carrots are a natural diuretic that promotes detoxification to speed up the flushing out of toxins, which has a positive effect on the skin and helps fatty build-up in the arteries get broken down and cleared out.
And as a natural anti-inflammatory and richly alkaline veggie, carrots help calm our overstressed immune systems and promote the right pH balance in the body.
Full of protective phytochemicals
Carrots are bursting with a range of protective phytochemicals like lutein, lycopene, carotenes, zeaxanthin, xanthophyll, falcarindiol and falcarinol which are natural anti-oxidants that prevent damage from dangerous oxidative free radicals.
Free radicals, as you already know, have been linked to various diseases as well as premature aging. The good news is that the phytochemicals in carrots help boost the natural resistance of cells and tissues from wear and tear, extending their longevity and even helping them rejuvenate and repair themselves faster.
And carrot’s protective properties go far beyond anti-aging. Carrots nourish the white blood cells which form a vital part of our immune defenses; have been shown to protect the liver (our body’s second largest organ); have been found to reduce the risk of breast cancer; and even found to kill off and stop the spread of cancer cells, including leukemia, by directly attacking their nuclei cores.
Ready to reap the benefits? Let’s get juicing!
6 Crave Worthy Carrot Juice Recipes
Carrots are surprisingly juicy and have the perfect amount of sweetness, making them the ideal vegetable to add into your juice recipes to sweeten things up without overloading on the sugar. Here are a bunch of delicious juice recipes to get you started!
Sweet Potato Pie Juice
Let’s kick this one off with the most delicious carrot juice recipe you’ll ever try, especially if you’re a fan of sweet potato pie. It tastes surprisingly similar – the spices definitely help – without the processed sugar, calories and carbs.
What you need:
- 4 Carrots
- ½ Sweet Potato
- ½ Red Capsicum (Bell Pepper)
- 1 Fuji Apple
- Sprinkling of Cinnamon
- Sprinkling of Nutmeg
Totally perfect for the autumn months!
Turmeric Sunrise
Here’s a simple juice recipe bursting with orange goodness. This line up of orange (and red) fruits and veggies are teeming with carotenoids and bioflavonoids, which are water-soluble pigments that function as disease-fighting, health-boosting antioxidants.
They’re also bursting with Vitamin C, zeaxanthin, flavonoids, lycopene, potassium, and a bunch more goodness. The overall result? A juice recipe that’s just the perfect amount of sweet with a delicious bite from the immune-boosting turmeric.
Green Glow Juice
Here’s a smooth, delicious green juice that’s perfect for beginners and bursting with nutrition:
- 6 large kale leaves
- 1/2 medium pineapple
- 2 carrots
- 2 apples
Both carrots and kale are incredibly high in Vitamin A, one of the most important nutrients for fighting acne. Kale leaves are also bursting with chlorophyll – one of the best things you can supply with your body with for anything, at any time…
Now add to the mix yummy pineapple with its high bromelain content (amazing digestive aid and effective anti-inflammatory) and you’ve got yourself one delicious skin care juice.
Fiery Veggie Juice
I’m a little in love with this juice recipe. It contains a lovely mix of veggies – including detox-aiding beets, weight-loss-promoting celery and eye-health-boosting carrots – and the whole yummy mix is topped off by zing-y, fiery ginger (a personal favorite with tons of health benefits)!
Plus, that big handful of parsley provides a rich load of chlorophyll for further detox – and energy – perks.
This mixed veggie concoction is perfect for summer months, any juice detox program you’re embarking on, as well as for the chillier fall and winter months as the ginger keeps your circulation flowing to warm you up 🙂
Rejuvenating Root Juice
This is one of the best turmeric juice recipes. Ever. Crafted by the brilliant Gourmande in the Kitchen, it’s really the perfect concoction of delicious immune-boosting, nutrient-rich goodness:
- 1 medium beet
- 3 medium carrots
- 1 medium blood orange (peeled)
- ½ a lemon (peeled)
- 2 inch turmeric root
- 1 inch fresh ginger
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Has the ideal amount of sugar and spice, with the sweeter root veggies like beet and carrot keeping everything palatable while the turmeric, ginger and peppers spice and zing it up.
The Energizer Bunny
Here’s a super simple, 3-ingredient apple juice recipe that’s unlike anything you’ve ever tried since it features the stamina-increasing, energy-boosting ginseng. Ginseng is a wonderfully warming and energizing root that’s known to act as a blood purifier, stabilize blood sugar levels and improve cholesterol.
Sure, it might be a little difficult to get your hands on, but this is one root that’s definitely worth it – it provides a tremendous boost to your immune system and is also helpful in helping to reduce overall stress, increase stamina, and give your energy levels a reboot.
Did I mention that ginseng’s also rich in anti-aging antioxidants? Read more about ginseng’s benefits!
Tips for Juicing Carrots
- To peel or not to peel? Like many vegetables, a significant amount of the nutrients in carrots are found just underneath the skin, so buy them organic so you don’t have to peel them. Simply clean them and chop to fit your juicer, the green tops can also be juiced so nothing is wasted. Again, since carrots grow directly in the soil they will readily absorb any added chemicals, so organic is best.
- Which carrots are best? When selecting your carrots smaller ones are sweeter, with baby carrots being the sweetest (and not requiring much chopping at all). The sweet flavor can be used to ‘disguise’ or compliment the taste of more bitter vegetables, making carrot juice an ideal base to work from. The darker the color the more beta-carotene carrots contain, so more Vitamin A can be produced by your liver.
- Juicing vs blending carrots? Carrots are the perfect juicing candidates since they don’t do as well in the blender, making for rather chunky smoothies unless you’re blending with a high-powered blender like a NutriBullet or a Vitamix.
- What to do with carrot pulp? Most juicers juice a lot of carrots, which means an overabundance of carrot pulp. One simple way to get a dose of fiber and get rid of the pulp is to simply juice your carrots in a juicer and then to add the pulp into your smoothies. But another great option is to make carrot cake. Mixed with buckwheat flour, carrot pulp makes a ridiculously delicious carrot cake. Check out juice pulp recipes!
- How much carrot juice to drink? Carrot juice is great for you – but everything in moderation, which is the case of carrot juice is about 1 cup per day (a little over a pound of carrots). After all, drinking too much carrot juice can actually turn your skin a little orange. This juicing side effect isn’t permanent so no need to get alarmed – it’s just that carrots have such a powerful detoxifying effect on the liver that it can release a lot of toxins into the blood. Sometimes the body cannot flush these toxins out quickly enough via the usual route, the urine. The skin is therefore used as a secondary method to get rid of the toxins and can become discolored. Drinking plenty of water will help flush out these toxins and remedy this temporary tinting!
Available on almost every continent, carrots have a long history of being used to promote health and support the body. The latest scientific research suggests carrots protect us from cancer and other debilitating diseases. Full of essential nutrients and with a sweet gentle flavor carrots are very popular with the health conscious consumer. Have you juiced a carrot today? Just like apples they will help keep the doctor away!
