Carrots are part of a healthy diet, right? Well, if they’re organic, haven’t been processed, or dipped in chemical cleaners, absolutely. Carrots are an incredibly nutritious root vegetable to consume as they’re rich in fiber and vitamins A and C.
Of course, that doesn’t really apply to “baby” carrots, which are made from larger, crooked or deformed carrots. As Mercola relays, the bright orange, edible-looking bites are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots and are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine so they might be preserved.
Why is this done? Well, as soon as a carrot turns white (also known as “white blushing”), the entire bag of carrots is pulled from the shelf. Obviously, that’s bad for business. To ‘remedy’ this, large-scale producers dip the “baby” carrots into a chlorine solution to prevent the white blushing from happening.
As you may know, chlorine is a well-known carcinogen. Household exposure to even small amounts can result in eye tearing, nose and throat irritation, sneezing, excess salivation, and restlessness.
It doesn’t matter that the chlorine-water solution helps limit the risk of food-borne illnesses such as E.coli, excess consumption of chlorine has been shown to actually be quite harmful to one’s health as it accumulates in the environment, food, and in one’s body.
Dr. Mercola relays:
“When chlorine interacts with organic matter it will form dangerous disinfection byproducts (DBPs) which are many thousands of times more toxic than chlorine. Research has now confirmed that the byproducts formed when chlorine reacts with organic material in water are some of the most potent toxins out there. Among them are trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). These disinfection byproducts are believed to be over 1,000 times more toxic than chlorine.”
The chemical industry likes to point out that there is no “sound science” to suggest that chlorine is dangerous, but there is some evidence that long-term chlorine consumption is linked with free radical formation. As you may know, this may result in accelerated aging, liver malfunction, weakening of the immune system, and pre-arteriosclerotic arteries.
Sadly, even “organic” baby carrots are said to be dipped in chlorine-water solutions to kill bacteria. This is because the term ‘organic’ can refer to any compound that is carbon-based as well as a food that was grown under healthier conditions, typically free of pesticides.
Basically, no baby carrots are safe.
This process wasn’t always the norm. When baby carrots first became popular – back in the 1980’s, they were cut and reshaped in much smaller batches. Now, machines have taken over the entire process and mow down about 75 tons of carrots per hour.
Clearly, more people need to know about the process baby carrots undergo when they are cut and prepped to be sold. Only then can consumers make educated choices about what produce items they buy.
It may be disheartening to learn that all baby carrots are dipped in a chlorine-water solution, but there’s an easy fix: simply buy whole, unprocessed carrots at your local farmer’s market, peel them and store them in cold water in the fridge to lengthen their lifespan.
Do this and you’ll protect you and your family from ingesting carcinogens from seemingly ‘healthy’ food.
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