Purple Carrot, the Functional Veggie Which Protects Us Against the Onset of Metabolic Syndrome

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Scientists may have found a juice which processes a potential effect in reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome, the major cause of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, some studies found.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of at least three of the five following medical conditions including high blood pressure and sugar, central obesity, abnormally high levels of blood cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

In the US, approximately, a quarter of the adult population has metabolic syndrome. 

Some researchers suggested, metabolic syndrome is likely associated with a genetic preposition 

However, Dr. Stančáková A, the lead author at the University of Eastern Finland in the research of the linkage of genetics in risk of metabolic syndrome, said, "GWA studies for the individual components of the MetS have reported several loci having pleiotropic effects on multiple MetS-related traits" and "Genetic studies have provided only limited evidence for a common genetic background of the MetS".

Other risk factors such as an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, increases with age, with racial and ethnic minorities are also associated with the onset of the condition.

Truly, in the study conducted by the joint study lead by the Leighton Hospital, wrote, "... there was a high prevalence of poor diet, smoking, and inadequate exercise. Many did not follow national recommendations for dietary intake of fruit and vegetables and daily exercise. These factors probably contribute to the high prevalence of metabolic syndrome".

Carrot, a root vegetable with an orange color is a subspecies of Daucus carota, belonging to the family Apiaceae, native to Asian and Europe. 

In the differentiation of the effect of purple vegetable in the risk of metabolic syndrome in the animal model, the University of Guelph conducted an evaluation to examine the effect of substitution of the majority of carbohydrate in a high-fat diet with purple potatoes (PP) or purple carrot (PC), for 8 weeks in obese Zucker rats.

After 8 weeks, according to the assay used in the studies, the substitution of PC improved insulin resistance and hypertension, major components of metabolic syndrome, compared to the control.

Dr, the lead author said, "incorporation of purple vegetables in functional food products may provide metabolic/cardiovascular benefits in the background of a high-fat diet that promotes obesity" However, "The bioactives in the vegetables responsible for blood pressure and glucose homeostasis could be different, and their effects could be independent of each other. The specific bioactives of each vegetable and their molecular targets remain to be identified".

This bioactive compound was found to be anthocyanins, a major component in the purple carrot juice.

In the evaluate whether anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and carotenoids, the predominant phytochemicals presented in purple carrots may be used in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome, researchers at the The University of Queensland launched an investigation to examine the activity of anthocyanins in rats fed a high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet as a model of the metabolic syndrome induced by diet.

Before injection with carrots juice, high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet-fed rats were found to develop many conditions associated the similarity to those of metabolic syndrome, including hypertension, cardiac fibrosis, increased cardiac stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, impaired glucose tolerance, increased abdominal fat deposition, altered plasma lipid profile, liver fibrosis and increased plasma liver enzymes together with increased plasma markers of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as increased inflammatory cell infiltration.

Application of purple juice at the end of the experiment attenuated or reversed all the changes while β-carotene isolated from the juice did not reduce oxidative stress, cardiac stiffness or hepatic fat deposition.

Further analysis of the concentration of the purple carrot juice, researchers wrote, "the juice itself contained low concentrations of carotenoids, it is likely that the anthocyanins are responsible for the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of purple carrot juice to improve glucose tolerance as well as the cardiovascular and hepatic structure and function".

These result suggested that anti-metabolic syndrome of purple carrot juice was attributed to the effect of a single bioactive compound, namely, anthocyanins.

Taken altogether, purple carrot juice containing a high amount of anthocyanins may be considered a functional food and secondary therapy  for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome without inducing any side effects

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Comparison of purple carrot juice and β-carotene in a high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet-fed rat model of the metabolic syndrome by Poudyal H1, Panchal S, Brown L.(PubMed)
(2) The Effect of Anthocyanin-Rich Purple Vegetable Diets on Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Zucker Rats by Ayoub HM1, McDonald MR2, Sullivan JA2, Tsao R3, Platt M1, Simpson J1, Meckling KA1.(PubMed)
(3) Genetics of metabolic syndrome by Stančáková A1, Laakso M.(PubMed)
(4) Lifestyle factors and the metabolic syndrome in Schizophrenia: a cross-sectional study by Adrian Heald,1,2 John Pendlebury,3 Simon Anderson,4 Vinesh Narayan,3 Mark Guy,5Martin Gibson,2 Peter Haddad,3 and Mark Livingston. (PMC)