I’ve been a pharmacist for decades, but I’m also a lifelong carrot eater. Raw dusted with salt, roasted with thyme/rosemary, shaved into salads, juiced back when juicing was all the rage. And somewhere along the way, I started asking a question most people never think about: How old is this carrot?
Not in a philosophical sense, but in a literal way… like how long has it been in the supply-chain.
Once you know the answer, you’ll never look at a bag of carrots the same way again.
The quiet truth about supermarket versions
Most carrots you see in grocery stores were not pulled from the ground last week. They’re are one of the longest-storing vegetables we have. Under commercial cold-storage conditions (about 32°F with high humidity), they can be held 2 to 6 months, and sometimes up to 9 months, before you ever buy them.
That’s not a conspiracy. It’s logistics.
According to USDA post-harvest data, these root veggies lose moisture and sugars slowly over time, not suddenly. They still look bright orange. They still crunch. But internally, chemistry is shifting:
- Natural sugars decline
- Aromatic compounds fade
- Texture becomes woody
- Bitterness can creep in
This is why a carrot can look perfect and taste… underwhelming.
Bagged “baby carrots” are even further removed from the field. They’re full-size carrots that were peeled, cut, shaped, rinsed in chlorinated water (a standard food-safety step), then packaged. Safe? Yes. Fresh? Not particularly.
Now, at this point you might be wondering if you can freeze a carrot and use it later. Read this artice I wrote to find out: How To Freeze 11 Herbs and Veggies and Why You Should.
It’s a very practical post that helps you keep foods on hand for all kinds of recipes.
Farmer’s Market Carrots: A different Vegetable Entirely
When I buy carrots at a Farmer’s Market, especially when the tops are still attached, I’m often buying fresh ones that were harvested 1 to 7 days earlier. Sometimes the same morning.
That difference matters more than whether the carrot is organic or conventional.
Fresh carrots contain measurably higher sugar levels. In one post-harvest analysis, carrots stored for 12 weeks lost up to 40% of their soluble sugars compared to fresh-harvest controls. That’s sweetness you’ll never get back.
People say “organic tastes better,” but what they’re really tasting is freshness.
Why Carrots Change After Harvest (and Why Flavor Fades)
Once a carrot is pulled from the ground, it doesn’t die immediately. It keeps respiring. That means it keeps burning fuel.
The fuel is sugar.
Over time, a carrot burns through its natural sugars for energy. The sweetness fades, moisture is lost, and the remaining structural fiber becomes more noticeable. Chemically, it becomes less sweet. Sensory-wise, it becomes woody and well… a little boring and bendy.
That’s why I think: Fresh conventional carrots beat old organic ones (unless you have a PON1 GENE).
Carrots aren’t just crunchy filler. They’re one of the most studied vegetables in nutrition research.
Here’s what the data actually shows.
- Vision health (with an important caveat)
Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is still the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. Adequate intake reduces the risk of night blindness and dry eye.
However (and this matters) some people carry BCMO1 gene variants, the gene responsible for converting beta-carotene into retinol (active vitamin A). When conversion is poor, eating carrots won’t improve night vision or correct vitamin A-dependent eye issues because the body simply can’t make the conversion efficiently. In those cases, preformed vitamin A is required instead.
A simple genetic test can reveal this. A lot of people fall into this category with a BCMO1 variant, which neatly explains why they don’t perform miracles for everyone’s eyes, they have vision problems early on, or skin problems, frequent infections and more issues related to a vitamin A deficiency. It’s a good reminder that nutrition isn’t just about what you eat – it’s about what your body can actually use.
This is a common enough genetic pattern that it influenced how I formulated Vision Script Capsules, which contains vitamin A in its active form so you’re not relying on a metabolic conversion your body may not handle well. Here’s a related article you might enjoy: How to Protect Your Eyesight Naturally — Strategies Beyond Carrots for Vision Health
- Cardiovascular disease
A large cohort study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that higher carrot intake was associated with a 32% lower risk of cardiovascular disease. The proposed mechanisms include antioxidant activity, potassium content, and soluble fiber effects on cholesterol metabolism.
Read this to find out the odd symptoms that are clues and the medications that can cause it: Left Ventricular Hypertrophy of the Heart: 10 Critical Symptoms to Watch For - Digestive and gallbladder support
Carrots contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds bile acids in the gut, which can help reduce cholesterol reabsorption. This is relevant for gallbladder health and may reduce bile stagnation, a known contributor to gallstone formation. While this humble root won’t dissolve gallstones, diets higher in vegetable fiber are consistently associated with lower gallstone risk.
Good time to mention this article about bile. Read about the 5 Symptoms of Bile Reflux: The Other “Reflux” You’ve Probably Never Heard Of. - Cancer risk reduction
Observational studies link higher carrot intake with reduced risk of certain cancers, particularly lung and gastric cancers. One meta-analysis found a 20–25% risk reduction in high carrot consumers, likely due to carotenoids and polyphenols—not magic, just biochemistry.
It’s not just carrots that have beta carotene. Certain edible (and tasty) seaweeds do too. You might be interested Top 10 Reasons Why Dulse is a Must for Hypothyroid Health. This article is about a natural superfood (and antioxidant) that highlights carotenoids (including beta-carotene and lutein) for thyroid health. This is another reason why colorful foods matter.
Medications To Discuss
Not directly, but carrots have influenced pharmacology more than people realize.
- Beta-carotene supplements were originally isolated from carrots and remain widely used, though high-dose supplementation is not recommended.
- Retinoids (vitamin A derivatives like tretinoin and isotretinoin) are medications inspired by vitamin A metabolism. They are not extracted from carrots, but the biochemical pathway starts there. They come with side effects.
- Carrot seed oil has antimicrobial and antifungal properties, though it’s used in topical and cosmetic formulations rather than FDA-approved drugs. It’s only for the skin.
In other words, carrots don’t give us medications, but they taught us a lot about how nutrients regulate cell growth, vision, and skin biology. When I buy these guys, I don’t obsess. I also don’t romanticize lol, here’s what I do:
- Snacking or salads → farmers market or tops-on carrots from the supermarket
- Roasting or soups → grocery store is fine for this (RECIPE HERE)
- Convenience → no judgement if you want these, but they’re not in my house. I just don’t want to trade time for nutrition, so I happily peel and chop the tastier ones.
Why are Carrots Orange?
They were not always orange. For centuries, they came in purple, yellow, white, and red. Many of the early purple varieties were earthy, bitter, and nothing like the sweet carrots we eat today.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch farmers became masters of selective breeding. Working with existing yellow and red carrots, they repeatedly saved seeds from roots that were sweeter, milder, more uniform – and more orange. That color mattered because it signaled higher beta-carotene, which also meant better flavor and better storage.
There’s something called the famous House of Orange.
Orange was a national symbol in the Netherlands, and the timing certainly didn’t hurt. But historians tend to agree there’s no proof carrots were bred solely to honor Dutch royalty. Taste, shelf life, and market appeal were far more practical motivations. Orange types simply performed better.
It’s also worth noting that orange-leaning carrots likely existed earlier in parts of Spain and Italy. What the Dutch did wasn’t invent the carrot, it’s that they standardized it, grew it at scale, and spread it through trade until orange became our beautiful global default.
From a nutrition standpoint, that orange color isn’t cosmetic. It reflects the amount of beta-carotene, which is the vitamin A precursor important for vision, immunity, and epithelial health. That said, not everyone converts beta-carotene efficiently – people with certain BCMO1 gene variants won’t get the same benefit.
Another reminder that nutrition is personal. Have you not heard of BCM01 before? IF not, it’s an important gene that explains: What your genes say about nutrient conversion — and more specifically why some of you don’t get vitamin A from carrots and have visual deficits from a young age. I talk about it in my related article, Genes, Methylation and Your Health.
You may want to take 5 minutes and read my other article The Benefits of Vitamin A – A classic piece that reviews what vitamin A does for your immune health, skin, and eyesight.
The takeaway
By the time you see a carrot on a supermarket shelf, it may be months old, even though it looks fresh. Farmers market carrots are often days old, and that difference explains most of what people attribute to “organic magic.”
Carrots help you with vision, cardiovascular health, digestion, and bile flow assuming you can turn the beta carotene into vitamin A (most people can). Carrots give us carotenoids that influence and improve your risk for lots of different disease. They’re an antioxidant food. The root crop has even shaped drug development. And they’re still just carrots.
The most fascinating thing about them isn’t hype, it’s time. Once you taste a truly fresh carrot, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
Related article: Genes, Methylation and Your Health.
Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.
