Called even the “King of Vegetables,” given its widespread spread in dishes of all kinds, carrot can be ranked I in the ranking of the most commonly used vegetables.
As the color indicates, it is one of the beta-carotene-rich vegetables. Our body turns beta-carotene into vitamin A, useful for sight, especially at night. So if you want the prince to be healthy and can easily travel through the house at night, give him a lot of carrot. But not very often! Excessive consumption can damage the nose of the little one by coloring it orange. If you do, do not be impatient! Reduce carrot consumption and the situation will return to normal shortly.
What nutrients does it contain?
Carrot is the most important natural source of vitamin A. Vitamin A improves vision, alleviating the effects of eye aging and preventing the appearance of visual illnesses such as cataract, so widespread in older ages.
Carrots contain dietary fiber, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin B, potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium.
How do we choose and how do we store them?
If you can buy carrots with their leaves, you have an important clue about their freshness. The more green and fresh the leaves are, the more carrot is “new”. A too soft carrot, which grows small white or rather dry, is old and it can not provide us with the nutrients it held in its freshness.As for the carrot peel, it contains much of the nutrients. But if you have any doubts about the origin of the carrot, it would be wiser to drop it off before cooking it. And chemicals mostly concentrate on the bark of the vegetables.
The best way to cook carrots to keep the nutrients contained is steaming.The best way to keep the carrot and the nourishing substances in it is to store it in the refrigerator, in the special fruit and vegetable compartment.
When can I introduce carrots into my baby’s diet?
Carrot is an easily digestible food, it is responsible for allergies in extremely rare cases, it is easily accepted by babies, which recommend it as the first food to be introduced into the diversified food. If the pediatrician agrees with the age of 6 months as a start for diversification, the carrot becomes the candidate for the first solid food introduced into the diet. It can be eaten by the baby in the form of juice, shaved through a metal or glass jar, or passage.
Carrot bark must be removed if the carrot is consumed by a child less than 8 months because its digestive system can not digest it. For some time I’ve noticed the baby carrots in the supermarket shelves. I tried it, too, of curiosity. Being rather tasteless, I quickly abandoned them. I later read that the “real” are quite expensive to see for the wallet, and they are not so easy to find. The most accessible, the category in which the ones I try, are the regular carrots, cut off a “calapod”, all of the same size, without shell, and washed in special solutions.In conclusion, choose as natural as possible, organic if you have them, whose shells should not be removed.
How to cook carrot?
Unlike most vegetables, carrot is more nutritious when cooked, compared to its cruel version. Explanation – Thermal processing breaks cell membranes, fiber becomes more easily accessible to the body, as well as nutrients, while releasing carrot sugar (so the carrot becomes more sweet by boiling / baking).
A special quality of this vegetable is its ability to adjust the problems that can arise with the baby’s belly. He knows how to repair both constipation and diarrhea.If the baby’s intestinal transit raises some problems, you can make a raw puree, possibly in combination with raw apple.If diarrhea makes you headaches, you can prepare for your baby a soup / drink of 500g of carrots, cooked in a liter of water. Boil the carrot in this amount of water for one hour at low heat, adding water from time to time, so that after one hour of cooking you have 1 liter of liquid. Remove the boiled carrot, paste it very finely, with any tool you have at your fingertips, then incorporate it into the water it boiled in. Give the child as much as possible of the prepared soup to solve the diarrhea. If you are experiencing a more severe problem, we recommend you also call a pediatrician.
I want you kids healthy and at least curious to try carrot. Give it as an example to Bugs Bunny that he just knows what he knows!
Sources:
http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/carrot-baby-food.html
http://www.freshforkids.com.au/veg_pages/carrot/carrot.html
Photo by:
http://flic.kr/p/4rnB47