by Alfredo Alvarez
Proud students and alumni of the University of Texas in Austin, Texas
often remark that they bleed orange for their home school, whose
home color is a shimmering orange. This vivid description might also
apply to someone who drinks a lot of freshly juiced carrots, as the color
of the juice is a shimmering bright orange.
Anyone looking to immediately improve their general health, or treat
specific maladies should look first to that delightful bright orange
drink made by a juicer. Vegetables are themselves a vital part of any
diet. One of the most vitamin rich of these is the lowly carrot.
Naturally, fresh carrot juice has become one of the first and often
used components of a specific health regimen. There are numerous reasons
for this. As a general rule, a pound of carrots yields a pint of juice.
What vitamins does this yield?
Carrot Juice Benefits
First off, a pint of
carrot juice contains 60,000 IU of vitamin A.
(Compare this to the recommended daily allowance of 5000 IU for adults)
Vitamin A is an anti-oxidant which is key to the growth and repair of
tissues. The vitamin helps keep eyes healthy, and also helps alleviate
night blindness. The vitamin helps the body fight infections. It helps
nourish epithelial tissues in the lungs, as well all of the skin.
Vitamin A also works with calcium to form teeth and bones. Have brittle
nails or split ends? If so, you may have a vitamin A deficiency.
Obviously the vitamin is helpful in many different ways, both to people
who are ill but also to those who seek to maintain a high level of health.
The finest source of vitamin A, although not the only source, is from
carrots. The vitamin also is prominent in green, leafy vegetables, but
not in such easy to consume quantities.
Doctor Norman Walker maintained that people should drink a pint of
fresh carrot juice daily, simply as a general health maintainer. Interestingly,
a carrot juice, mixed with another vegetable like celery or parsley or
apple, certainly makes for a very effective multi-vitamin. And delivered
to the body in the form of fresh juice allows the body to easily assimilate
and absorb its vitamins and minerals.
Carrots also contain a significant supply of calcium, potassium and
phosphorus. Mixed with celery, which is our favorite combination of the
juice, it creates a high content of sodium, an essential element that
many people are deficient in.
Drinking carrot juice regularly is a great way to confront the issues
of aging. The vitamins relieve such symptoms as bone pain, backaches,
insomnia, brittle cavity-prone teeth and tremors of the fingers. As always
with juicing, we want to emphasize that taking vitamins will not yield
immediate effects like taking a happy pill.
One glass of carrot juice will not be a magic elixir. The benefits
of vitamins and minerals only appear after regular, routine use. This
is similar to exercising. Going to the gym off-and-on haphazardly yields
little real benefit. However exercising regularly dramatically improves
results. The important thing is to keep your juicer in sight on the counter
and not far back in a cupboard.
Vegetable juices like carrot are best ingested in the afternoon. Evenings
are okay, but keep in mind that they will give you a burst of energy,
so try not to wait too late. If it is getting close to bedtime, and you
still want to get your juicing in for the day, make a Waldorf.
Carrot Juice Questions
