Carrots

Have you ever seen a purple carrot? How about white, yellow or red? Most people haven't, even though they’ve existed for hundreds of years. They are available in good health food stores, often called "Rainbow Packs."

The first carrots were grown for medicinal purposes. Originally, carrots were purple or red, with a thin root. The species did not turn orange until the 1500's when Dutch growers used a mutant yellow carrot seed from North Africa to develop a carrot in the color of the Dutch Royal Family… The House of Orange.

Research suggests that the colorful pigments in carrots, which taste just like regular carrots, may help prevent heart disease and cancer, and reduce cholesterol. Studies examining the health benefits of fruits and vegetables are showing the disease-preventive powers of the pigments that give plants their distinctive colors.

Orange carrots get their color from beta carotene; a pigment the body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is a major health problem in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency blinds nearly 350,000 children from over 75 countries every year, even though vitamin A deficiency is preventable.