I can remember getting baby carrots every day in the school lunch line. They seemed to have been a healthy choice! Studies show that might not be the case.
Carrots are an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants. Carrots are rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, and vitamin B8. They also contain high contents of pantothenic acid, iron, potassium, copper, and manganese! Carrots can improve your eyesight, increase cardiovascular health, and boost immune health. You wouldn’t expect there to be such a nutritional gap in between carrots and baby carrots, but studies show there is. Baby carrots tend to not only have little nutritional value, but they are almost a mutated version of a regular carrot!
Baby carrots were invented by a California carrot farmer, Mike Yurosek. In the early 1980s, Yurosek found that many of his carrots were not saleable because they were “ugly” — they weren’t the size or shape that could be sold at the grocery store. Instead of tossing these “ugly” carrots, he used an industrial bean cutter to shape them into what are now called “baby carrots.” The success of baby carrots was overwhelming. By 1987, carrot consumption had increased by 30 percent. Today, baby carrots consist of 70 percent of total carrot sales.
Nowadays, baby carrots are formed from larger carrots. The carrots are cut down, reshaped, and designed to be naturally sweeter. However, prior to the mid-1980’s, this wasn’t the case. Broken and misshapen carrots were often thrown out. This caused for carrot farmers to lose about 30% of their crops before they got to sell them. Inventively, Mike Yurosek, California carrot farmer, would take a potato peeler and reshape them into small pieces. This made them more desirable for a quick munching! Eventually, Yurosek purchased an industrial green bean cutter to quickly whittle the carrots into familiar 2-inch portions! Thus, the baby carrot was born!
Recent studies show they are covered in toxic chemicals. One of these chemicals is the infamous Chlorine. You may wonder why baby carrots look so fresh and remain edible for such long periods of time. This is because of the Chlorine. The baby carrots are soaked in a chlorine based water solution. The chlorine is used to limit the risk of diseases, like E. coli. Although this helps in the prevention of food-borne diseases, it also has harmful side effects. Chlorinated tap water has shown an increased risk of cancer. The U.S. Council of Environmental Quality states, “cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine.” Obviously, we shouldn’t have any chlorine in our water if it damages our health, so why is it in there? More relatively, why is it in our baby carrots?
Chlorine belongs to the same chemical group as fluoride, another toxic ingredient. According to the EPA, Americans consume 300-600 times the amount of chlorine that is considered safe to ingest.
Modern day baby carrots can be dangerous for our health. They contain man-made poisons that humans were never made to ingest. Mike Yurosek, the inventor of baby carrots would surely be disappointed in them today. Baby carrots have not produced the way he demonstrated they should be. However, there are rumors of baby carrots that aren’t true. Although baby carrots contain harsh chemicals, they are real carrots. Many people have believed and spread around the rumor that they aren’t. Also, due to popular concern, the white foam that forms inside of a baby carrot is not a reaction from chloroform. It is the result of a chemical but is actually an indicator that the carrot is drying out. Do not let the corruption of baby carrots make you afraid of real carrots. Organic carrots are amazing for our health and contain tons of natural vitamins and antioxidants. Just be sure to purchase your carrots from an organic brand only!