For the love of carrots

I love cooked carrots. I do not like raw carrots. I think you'll find more raw carrot lovers than those like me, but there's a good reason to like them cooked. (Not that this is the reason I eat them that way - I just think they taste better.) It turns out that cooked carrots are better for you!

Carrots have tough cellular walls that our digestive systems can't break down very well. Within those cells are contained beta carotene, which our body then turns into Vitamin A. Cooking breaks down the cellular walls, making the beta carotene more available.

In all fairness, technically, raw carrots can be as nutritious, if they're juiced. This too breaks down the cellular walls. And it's best to cook the carrots whole, rather than slicing them, because slicing them causes proteins and carbohydrates to be lost in the water during cooking.

If all this is too confusing, let's just keep it simple. Carrots are good for you, whether you eat them raw or eat them cooked. But if you eat them for the benefit of the beta carotene, you're better off to eat them cooked.

Oh, and one more thing, like a lot of root vegetables, there's a lot of goodness in the skins, so scrub them clean rather than peel them, whether you cook them or not.