I was talking about this to someone last week, and promised to send them a link to the article. For the life of me, I can't remember who it was--Sorry!--but I'm hoping if I turn it into a blog post, I'm covered.We eat baby carrots all the time. The process is something like this. I'm in the grocery store, wandering through the produce section. I think to myself, "We really need to eat more fruits and vegetables." Then I take a look around. What's easy? Because I know if I have to spend time preparing it, we'll avoid it and end up letting it go bad and throw it out. I'm not proud of this tendency, but I know it well.
So I see the baby carrots. Already peeled and washed! Conveniently finger-food size! I grab them and go.
Even though I do this often, I always had a sneaking suspicion that this was just too easy. Surely that meant either I was overpaying for the convenience or that, possibly, the baby carrots weren't as nutritious? According to some, both counts are true.
At the Wise Bread blog, this baby carrots entry tells the history of the baby carrot, which I found very interesting. It also argues that baby carrots as they currently exist are wasteful, less tasty, and less nutritious. The Reno Gazette-Journal says that baby carrots have less beta-carotene than normal carrots.
I have been swayed by the tales of waste and loss of nutritional value. Last time I was at the grocery store, I picked up a bag of normal carrots instead of the babies. But I'm still concerned that my lethargy when it comes to the kitchen might prevail. I thought about packing carrots in my lunch several times last week, but stopped when I remembered I'd have to wash, peel, and cut them.
However, this morning I did prepare a couple of carrot sticks and am looking forward to munching on them later. If they're tasty enough, perhaps the baby carrot and I have parted ways.
3 comments:
I'm not the person you discussed this with, but I have to say that I do find that full-size carrots taste better. And, according to my nutritionist, they are in fact healthier. The reason is because of the deeper orange color and less mutation, is what I've heard. I usually wash and peel them, then dry them well and store them whole until I know what I want to do with them. That makes it a little faster, anyway.
Funny that this topic came up. Just yesterday I was reading in a babyfood cookbook that baby carrots are not as good for Baby as regular carrots - who knew?!? I had never even thought about using baby carrots to make Will's babyfood! But the better nutriotianl values of real carrots will not sway me and my lazy ways - baby carrots are good enough for Bob and I; at least when we eat them we're eating a veggie and not a cookie! Seems like a good way to look at it, if you ask lazy me!
Well, I've only had them once. So far the jury's still out on whether the taste is significantly better.
Andrea--your argument is a valid one (Baby carrots vs. cookies. Mmmm, cookies ...) This is my fallback position, in case the whole carrot prep work thing doesn't last.
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