Your Personal Experience With Raw Carrots

[Glassy]

Yeah - it’s something I’ve wondered myself as I previously bought into the whole pre-biotics and plant fibre thing being required for digestive/biome health. Ray seems to be against eating the fibrous parts of leaf vegetables but thinks root vegetables are ok since they don’t suffer above ground attacks (animals/insects). I think he said something about preferring a herbivore to do the hard work for him.

I’ve been experimenting with boiled mushrooms and grated carrots but I really don’t eat too many other vegetables these days (aside from potatoes, onions and a bit of lettuce and cabbage occasionally). The science behind prebiotics is pretty weak and confounded by the PUFA element (which we believe is significant but is often not a factor in observational studies). I’m not convinced a diverse amount of vegetables is required but I also think we can handle more than root vegetables if our guts are healthy (maybe Ray does too, I don’t know).

 

[Gadsie]

I find that they sometimes give me headaches. I think the carrot scraping the intestinal wall creates serotonin that causes a headache.

Have you figured this out? I had a large carrot yesterday for the first time and now I have a headache, I never have headaches. I also slept poorly which could be a cause, or another symptom.

 

[whit]

Have you figured this out? I had a large carrot yesterday for the first time and now I have a headache, I never have headaches. I also slept poorly which could be a cause, or another symptom.

We've found this as well. With time however we coupled it with activated charcoal and maybe some glycine the headaches go away and sleep improved.

 

[_lppaiva]

I have less (close to none) bloating and gases when eating the carrot salad, even when I consume starch

 

[berk]

funny that everybody is excited about carrots and nobody cares about that beta carotene is anti thyroid and blocking thyroid hormones.


Quotes by Ray Peat, PhD:
“In the 1930’s accurate diagnosis [of hypothyroidism] was made by evaluating a variety of indications, including basal oxygen consumption, serum cholesterol level, pulse rate, temperature, carotenemia, bowel function, and quality of hair and skin.”

“If your cholesterol is above 200, and the thyroid supplements didn’t warm you up, it’s possible that something is interfering with your steroid synthesis, which might be a deficiency of something like vitamin A, or interference from something like iron or carotene.”

“Yes, it’s definitely hard to get them coordinated when there’s an imbalance in one direction or the other. For several years, when I had an extremely high metabolic rate, I needed 100,000 units per day during sunny weather to prevent acne and ingrown whiskers, but when I moved to a cloudy climate, suddenly that much was too much, and suppressed my thyroid. The average person is likely to be hypothyroid, and to need only 5,000 units per day. Avoiding large amounts of carotene, and getting plenty of vitamin B12 to be able to convert any carotene that’s in your food, helps to use vitamin A efficiently.”

“Thomas H. McGavack’s 1951 book, The Thyroid, was representative of the earlier approach to the study of thyroid physiology. Familiarity with the different effects of abnormal thyroid function under different conditions, at different ages, and the effects of gender, were standard parts of medical education that had disappeared by the end of the century. Arthritis, irregularities of growth, wasting, obesity, a variety of abnormalities of the hair and skin, carotenemia, amenorrhea, tendency to miscarry, infertility in males and females, insomnia or somnolence, emphysema, various heart diseases, psychosis, dementia, poor memory, anxiety, cold extremities, anemia, and many other problems were known reasons to suspect hypothyroidism.”

“I avoid carotene, because it blocks thyroid and steroid production, and very large, excessive, amounts of vitamin A, retinol, can do the same.”

“Long ago, people knew that polyunsaturated fats blocked proteolytic enzymes. The first effect of too much PUFA is to block the ability of the thyroid gland to secrete the hormone by breaking down the thyroid globulin. If the thyroid does manges to secrete it, the transport of it on proteins in the blood is inhibited in proportion to the unsaturation. Fish oils with 5 and 6 unsaturated double bonds are the most powerful, almost total inhibitors of thyroid transport. Linolenic acid (omega -3) fats with 3 double bonds inhibits about 50%, linoleic acid (omega -6) with 2 double bonds inhibits about 30%. So the inhibition is proportional to the amount of double bonds. The responsiveness of the cell to thyroid is inhibited in proportion to the amount of unsaturated fats. Carotene is highly unsaturated and it has the same effect of interfering with thyroid function because of this series of unsaturations.“

 

[berk]

i tried a raw carrot today (i peel them vertically.) and felt bloated, low energy and uncomfortable for 6+ hours.
when i cooked carrot i doesn't bothered me.
So what tells this to me?

 

[Aymen]

i tried a raw carrot today (i peel them vertically.) and felt bloated, low energy and uncomfortable for 6+ hours.
when i cooked carrot i doesn't bothered me.
So what tells this to me?

all your answers are found here:
Ray Peat, PhD on the Benefits of the Raw Carrot – Functional Performance Systems (FPS)
“It takes a few days for the intestine to adjust to raw carrot, but the indigestible fiber is very protective for the intestine. Boiled bamboo shoots, which are also mostly indigestible, have a similar effect. These fibers prevent the reabsorption of estrogen in the intestine, and can shift the balance away from cortisol and estrogen, toward progesterone and thyroid, in just a few days of regular use. Oatmeal and potatoes do provide fiber, but they are good food for bacteria, and bacterial endotoxin is usually the basic problem causing hormone imbalance, by being a chronic burden for the liver, keeping it from storing enough sugar to process thyroid and the other hormones effectively.” RP

about the beta carotene: limit it to 1 or 2 a day.
"If you want to avoid the carotene of carrots, they can be rinsed after shredding; washed and cooked bran or psyllium husk can be effective, too." RP

 

[Lenny]

I started eating raw carrots only a few month's a go. At first I did not feel any benefids but latetely iv'e been making ray's carrot salad (as before i'd just eat the carrot). The salad (+muchrooms) completely cured my bloating and I feel better. I eat a salad a day and somedays add charcoal and muchrooms. Also do coffee enema's once every 2 weeks.

 

[berk]

all your answers are found here:
Ray Peat, PhD on the Benefits of the Raw Carrot – Functional Performance Systems (FPS)
“It takes a few days for the intestine to adjust to raw carrot, but the indigestible fiber is very protective for the intestine. Boiled bamboo shoots, which are also mostly indigestible, have a similar effect. These fibers prevent the reabsorption of estrogen in the intestine, and can shift the balance away from cortisol and estrogen, toward progesterone and thyroid, in just a few days of regular use. Oatmeal and potatoes do provide fiber, but they are good food for bacteria, and bacterial endotoxin is usually the basic problem causing hormone imbalance, by being a chronic burden for the liver, keeping it from storing enough sugar to process thyroid and the other hormones effectively.” RP

about the beta carotene: limit it to 1 or 2 a day.
"If you want to avoid the carotene of carrots, they can be rinsed after shredding; washed and cooked bran or psyllium husk can be effective, too." RP

well i keep raw carrots for a few more days than and see what happens.
Thanks.

Edit: so i eat regular carrots btw, is there a difference between regular vs baby carrot? (beside baby carrots has less vitamins and minerals)

 

[Aymen]

well i keep raw carrots for a few more days than and see what happens.
Thanks.

Edit: so i eat regular carrots btw, is there a difference between regular vs baby carrot? (beside baby carrots has less vitamins and minerals)

yes and the color makes a difference too, i eat regular carrot.
Red Carrots (Desi Gajar) Versus Orange Carrots: Which Ones Would You Choose?
The Truth About Baby Carrots

 

[metabolizm]

It's early days, but the effect of bowel movements has been very positive.

 

[Ben Stone]

I've been experimenting with black seed oil on the carrot salad (1tsp) with a little coconut oil or olive oil, very tasty. I know some here will object to black seed oil, but I have found benefits with it. There are some threads on this forum discussing it.

 

[Apple]

well i keep raw carrots for a few more days than and see what happens.

Combining carrots with vinegar and coconut oil (maybe a but sugar on top of that) makes a big difference.

 

[equipoise]

I've been experimenting with black seed oil on the carrot salad (1tsp) with a little coconut oil or olive oil, very tasty. I know some here will object to black seed oil, but I have found benefits with it. There are some threads on this forum discussing it.

I'm waiting for my black seed oil to arrive then I'm definitely giving it a try as per @Hans recommendation.

Methylene Blue + Nigella Sativa + Coconut Oil + ACV in a carrot salad seems like an excellent mix

 

[Ismail]

I've been experimenting with black seed oil on the carrot salad (1tsp) with a little coconut oil or olive oil, very tasty. I know some here will object to black seed oil, but I have found benefits with it. There are some threads on this forum discussing it.

What benefits have you experienced from the black seed oil? ?