• Posted January 10, 2025

Can Carrots Help Treat Type 2 Diabetes?

Munching on carrots may help benefit your health, especially if you live with type 2 diabetes.

At least, that is the hope of researchers in Denmark.

"We see carrots as a potential component of future dietary strategies for type 2 diabetes," says Lars Porskjær Christensen, professor of analytical chemistry at the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy at South Denmark University, said in a news release from the school.

Using a mouse model, the scientists discovered that the bioactive compounds in carrots may enhance the body's ability to regulate blood sugar and positively influence the composition of gut bacteria.

The preliminary but promising results were published in Dec. 2024 in the journal Clinical and Translational Science.

The research team got together to help determine how the nutrients in the starchy vegetable triggered metabolic effects.

Over 16 weeks, they studied the effects of carrots using mice induced with type 2 diabetes.

To mimic a typical, unhealthy human lifestyle, the mice were placed on a high-fat diet and divided into two groups: one group received a diet supplemented with 10% freeze-dried carrot powder, while the other received a diet without carrots. The only difference between the two diets was the bioactive compound in the carrots.

The results: Using glucose tolerance tests, researchers determined that the carrot powder group exhibited improved blood sugar regulation.

That makes sense as the bioactive compounds in carrots enhance the cells' ability to absorb sugar, thereby aiding blood sugar regulation.

What's more, consuming the carrots appears to shift the gut bacteria towards a healthier balance, benefiting the study's mice with type 2 diabetes, the authors said.

"Our study showed that adding carrots to the diet altered the composition of the gut microbiome," said Christensen, referring to the billions of microorganisms living in the gut that play a crucial role in digestion and health.

So, can carrots help humans? While the researchers are cautious about directly applying their findings to humans, they hope to secure funding to pursue further research that eventually demonstrates the power of carrots on people.

If compounds in carrots can produce similar results in people, they could potentially benefit the millions of people in the U.S. who live with type 2 diabetes. The hope is that the findings will lead to a way to enhance existing diabetes medications.

Authors suggest doing very little to prepare carrots before eating. Cooking impacts the amount of health-promoting substances, but they do not disappear entirely. However, raw or lightly cooked carrots seem to be the best option to retain as many beneficial compounds as possible.

More information

The CDC's website includes advice on diabetes meal planning.

SOURCE: The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), news release, Jan. 8, 2025