Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe for the Health Conscious

When I first thought to write about carrots, I did not expect it to have such a long and convoluted history, from its simple beginnings, where only the leafs and flowers were used, to being one of the most popular vegetables in the world.

The word carrot originated from the Latin word carota, the first cook book to mention a carota was written in 230 A.D by Apicius Czclius. Although there are earlier written works dating back to 200 A.D in the Roman writings of Athenaeus that mention the carrot. This is not the earliest reference to this vegetable, there are paintings on temples in Egypt dating back to 2000 B.C. which some people believe to be paintings of carrots.

Although one would hardly associate the original carrots with what we eat today, as they were a scruffy looking purplish root, mostly used for medicine rather then as a food source. The humble carrot has indeed come a long way since those bygone days of yore, it is now in fact, one of the top ten most popular vegetables. Some people attribute the aesthetically pleasing color of the modern carrot to the work of farmers cross breeding different wild carrots in the Netherlands around the 16^th to 17^th century. While this theory does hold some merit it does bring up some interesting questions, as there was a Byzantine illuminated manuscript ( Vienna Dioscurides ) depicting what looks like our modern day carrot with its distinctive orange coloring, written around 512 ad by Pedanius Dioscurides.

Still most people would credit our garden variety carrot to the Dutch. And the spread of the carrot to the Moors. Whether this is a historical fact or not is up for debate.

Large Consumption of Carrots can lead to a condition called carotenosis, a harmless condition that turns a persons skin orange.

Carrots are one of the few vegetables that need to be processed in some form or other for the human body to maximize absorption of its nutrients.

And weirdly enough the best way to eat a carrot is lightly stir fried in cooking oil. As this helps to breakdown the pulp, therefor assisting the body in absorption. There is a down side to this cooking method, frying vegetable's in oil, releases free radicals which are harmful to the human body.

Boiling carrots is another method that helps the body absorb b-carotene, it also has its drawbacks, mainly the loss of other nutrients in carrots such as vitamin C.

Juicing seems to be the best method to consume a carrot, a high nutritional yield without any drawbacks.

The human body absorbs only 3% of a b-carotene in raw carrots, 21% in Juiced Carrots, 27% in carrots boiled whole and an astounding 39% in carrots stir fried in cooking oil.

Carrots contain a compound called falcarinol, this anti-cancer compound is water soluble, boiling your carrots whole and slicing it up later helps to retain 25% more of this compound, This discovery by Dr Kirtsen Brandt, an agricultural scientist at Newcastle University. States that people whose diets contained high lvls of falcarinol had a 30% less chance of developing cancer, then those people who did not consume any falcarinol.

Vitamin A deficiency can lead to poor eyesight and night vision, carrots are rich in vitamin A, this probably led to the Myth that carrots will bestow upon a person the amazing ability to see in the dark.

A myth that the British government used to its advantage during World War Two, when the Royal Air Force circulated a story attributing the British gunners ability to target German planes at night, to the consumption of carrots. This rumor was started to prevent the Germans from discovering the effective use of radar technology in targeting German planes. At one period during the war there was a glut of carrots. and the British government held a campaign to promote the consumption of carrots. It was then that Dr carrot was created, a cartoon caricature of a carrot used in posters, and was sang about during World War Two, Dr Carrot and his trusty sidekick Potato Pete, were widely known and loved by the populace of England.

The Romans and the ancient Greeks believed that the carrot had aphrodisiac properties. This myth probably originated from the carrots distinctive shape. Need I say more?

In Asia Carrot poultice was used to remove warts.

In the west pulped Carrots were used to treat sores and ulcers.

Traditionally the west were the biggest producers of carrots in the world, but relatively recently Asia took over as the biggest crop producer for the carrot. Producing more then sixty percentage of the worlds carrot crop.

To this day, in some parts of Afghanistan, the local Afghanistan tribesmen harvest wild carrots, and make a strong alcoholic beverage from them. These carrots more closely resemble the carrots we used to consume in Europe a few centuries ago, the purple and white variety, rather then the orange carrot we are used to seeing in our local grocery stores today.

Carrot cake

Gajar Ka Halwa

Carrots in Stir fry

Carrot in Soup

Carrot Juice

Get your daily Carrot hit while eating a cake at the same time :)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup grated carrots (about 5 carrots)
3 eggs
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 180' Celsius

Whisk the olive oil and sugar.
Add one egg at the time, whisk until smooth and repeat until all eggs are done.
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon powder in a large bowl.

Sift the dry ingredients into the liquid mix, slowly add the dry ingredients while whisking.
Pour mixture into a deep baking cake tray.
Bake for 50 minutes at 180' Celsius.