Little Step No. 59
What to do:
Add (proper) butter to your carrots.
Why this step works:
The world of nutrition can at times be confusing and overwhelming. Barely a week goes by without the emergence of another ‘miracle diet’ or ‘superfood’ that promises to be the golden ticket to ‘transform your health’. And amid all this nutrition noise, it's easy to see why many of the simplest health tips get overlooked.
Adding a dollop of (proper) butter to carrots is something our grandparents would have done. I can certainly remember my own Nana serving carrots this way and I get a warm feeling when, many years later, science validates why age-old little dietary steps like these are well worth holding on to.
Here's the sciencey bit...
Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that we need for lots of reasons, from immune, skin and thyroid function to vision, gut health, energy production and more. Carrots are a good source of beta-carotene which can be converted by the body into vitamin A. If you are to get the full goodness from your carrots, this conversion is crucial. Many factors however can influence this. One way of helping this conversion to happen is to consume your carrots with a source of fat, such as a dollop of butter. This is because adding fat massively enhances the likelihood that your body will be able to convert the beta carotene from the carrots into the vitamin A that your body really needs. I’ll always choose and recommend proper butter too, just like the type my Nana had on her table. Because science has finally caught up with the health benefits of this too (but that’s another story!)
Like buttery carrots, the simplest little steps are always the best. Hope you enjoy this one x