Is the popular “raw carrot salad” actually beneficial?
With all the hype around hormones, the best way to balance them and all of the tips and tricks it can be difficult to navigate the claims made. Let’s dive into the popular “raw carrot salad” and see how it stacks up!
The raw carrot salad has become super common, with huge claims being made about it’s ability to detox estrogen, support hormone balance, clear skin, improve gut health… the list goes on. It has gained popularity from the “Pro-metabolic” world, which was a diet coined by Dr. Raymond Peat.
Raymond “Ray” Peat had a PhD in biology, with a specialization in physiology through the University of Oregon. He spent many years working as a professor in various universities across the world. Peat’s research focused on the endocrine system as well as the hormones that drive energy expenditure and weight loss. He began studying progesterone in 1968 and later moved on to other endocrine hormones like estrogen and thyroid hormone.
His following continues to grow as his research becomes more well known. Peat’s website has many posts written about hormones that contain a significant amount of sources. Although many are considered outdated for today’s standards, I personally love to see all angles to form a well rounded opinion.
Ray Peat introduced the Raw Carrot Salad, and it has gained popularity a few times over the decades.
How did he come up with the salad and where do the claims come from?
Peat realized that he stopped getting migraines after he started eating one raw carrot per day, which caused him to “suspect that the carrot fiber was having both a bowel-protective and an antiestrogen effect.” He references a study that says “several women who suffered from premenstrual symptoms, including migraines, has their serum estrogen measured before and after the ‘carrot diet,’” and ‘found that the carrot lowered their estrogen within a few days, as it relieved their symptoms.’”
The problem? The study he references is nowhere to be found on the internet; which could mean it just never made it here, or that it’s entirely made up.
Now, why would women be getting such incredible results from it? Let’s look at the information we DO have!
We know that eating fibrous foods, raw foods can help the gut to release extra estrogen. Estrogen has to pass through both the gut and the liver.
We have a study from 2009 that found a high fiber diet was associated with decreased hormone concentrations, including a form of estrogen.
Something to point out is that this will only work if there is excess estrogen in the body. “Estrogen dominance” (which is not an actual medical diagnosis by the way!) comes in many forms. Often women will have signs and symptoms of this “dominance” but it’s truly from low progesterone and normal levels of estrogen giving the illusion of excess estrogen simply from the imbalance.
So, is the carrot salad good, bad, harmless?
Any and all really. The raw carrot salad could absolutely be beneficial in moving excess estrogen from the body, but we don’t have any information to confirm that carrots are the superior form of fiber!
Are there any instances where carrots are not recommended?
Carrots are consumed across the world and are typically praised for their “high vitamin A content” because it’s “good for your eyesight!”.. but that isn’t the full story.
Carrots contain beta carotene, not retinol or retinyl palmitate. The body needs to convert the beta carotene into the usable form of vitamin A, this conversion is mainly done in the intestinal mucosa (gut barrier) but also occurs in the liver and other organs.
Okay, stay with me. You may have heard of a “MTHFR mutation” .. which is actually a variation not a mutation but that’s info for another day. There is another gene code “BCMO1”, everyone has two copies of this gene but about 45% of the population carries at least one gene variation that reduces the BCMO1 enzyme activity. In other words, their beta carotene conversion can be up to 70% lower. Carotenoids are already poorly absorbed with typically less than 3% absorbed.
But what happens when there is too much carotenoids? Carotenemia! This is where your skin begins to get an orange hue from excess carotenoids. While the research is split on whether or not this is harmful, we do have research showing excess carotenoids can act as pro-oxidants at higher levels. The breakdown products from beta-carotene include aldehydes and epoxides, which impair mitochondrial function. We do not want to be impairing mitochondrial function long term, so this is something to keep in mind if consuming a large amount of carotenoids.
So what’s the conclusion?
I’m all for raw carrot salads, but I don’t believe they are going to work for everyone, nor do I think they are a miracle cure. I don’t doubt women have seen incredible results from them, but as always, diet and lifestyle play a role in overall health! One carrot salad a day won’t outdo a fast food diet. I personally eat them, but if I did notice my skin/palms/soles of my feet getting an orange hue I would be cutting back!
Thanks for being here, friends!
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