Carrot juice has important health benefits. In fact, as science shows, carrot juice is able to reduce chronic inflammation. Not only that, carrot juice also brings interesting benefits in cases of acute inflammation, when our body is called upon to respond to an external threat. So let’s try to better understand what carrot juice can do for our health. Below we will also see how we can enjoy carrots, in addition to carrot juice, to guarantee these benefits.
It’s a classic, going to the bar and ordering a carrot juice, perhaps mixed with apple or, why not, ginger. And from today we know, thanks to research from a few weeks ago, that this drink is not only colorful and tasty, but also useful in combating the number one enemy of our health, inflammation. The research can be consulted online in the journal Nutrients thanks to the work of a Danish team (Kobaek Larsen et al, Nutrients, Nov 2023).
Carrot juice against inflammation and its consequences, what the study says
The study involved 40 healthy adults who were asked to drink 500 ml of carrot juice. Before taking and one hour after taking the juice, the volunteers underwent a blood test. Subsequently, the blood was treated in the laboratory, recreating the conditions of acute inflammation. What emerged is that carrot juice, in healthy people, reduces inflammation by decreasing circulating pro-inflammatory substances. In case of acute inflammation, the juice instead increases the substances capable of regulating the immune response, in order to avoid too low or too high response. The conclusion of the study is that carrot juice proves useful in keeping chronic inflammation under control and, as the authors of the study themselves state, thanks to its immunomodulatory action it can be helpful in those conditions in which inflammation plays an important role, such as diabetes and cellular degeneration.
Carrot juice and inflammation, conclusions and warnings
The study is small and more research will need to be done to observe the benefits across large segments of the population. Not only that, the research focused on the short term, analyzing the blood values of the volunteers only one hour after taking the juice. However, it could be helpful to evaluate what happens in the long term and with a consumption of less than 500 ml of juice but on a regular basis. Despite these limitations that will be filled by subsequent studies, current research has the merit of showing that carrot juice acts, on the one hand, by reducing chronic inflammation and, on the other, in case of threat signaled by acute inflammation, to regulate our immune response. All thanks to two substances present in carrots, such as falcarinol and falcarindiol, with anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-tumor and anti-aggregating action. But not only in the form of juice, carrots can also be consumed in salads and, based on studies, 300 grams of carrots is the threshold quantity above which carrots exert their beneficial effects on health. Some more useful pieces of information. Falcarinol and falcarindiol are not only found in carrots, but also in celeriac, celery, parsnip, lovage root, parsley root and panax ginseng. Finally, these substances are inactivated by heat, hence the importance of consuming raw vegetables (Deding et al, Nutrients, 2023).