So it seems like purple carrots are useful for more than just looking funky. Apparently some research carried out at the University of Southern Queensland have shown some pretty remarkable effects, although it's only an early study at the minute.
Rats were fed a high fat, high carbohydrate diet (sounds like my usual fare) for 16 weeks, and had number of unhealthy conditions as a result. They grew fat, became glucose intolerant and suffered liver and heart damage (maybe I need to rethink my diet). For the next 8 weeks the rats had their diet supplemented with purple carrot juice. The negative effects of their diet disappeared.
Apparently a lot of the benefits may be due to a high level of anthocyanins - which are the same antioxidant giving blueberries their colour.
On a completely unrelated note - did I mention I ordered some purple carrot seeds?
Source: The Age
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