b'SENSE, NONSENSE AND SCIENCEBY: JOE SCHWARCZWHATS UP DOC?R emember Bugs Bunnys classicprofits by cutting carrots. So, they decidedThis is not reversible. Neither of these question, Whats up Doc? Ill tellto buy out Yurosek and Grimmway quicklywhitening effects has anything to do with you whats up. Carrot consumption!became the largest producer of baby-cutthe safety of eating a carrot.Why? Because those polyethylene-baggedcarrots. Consumers flocked to buy the littleSo, is there any safety issue at all? cute little baby carrots are extremelybaby carrots that could be eaten straightRare allergies do occur. A 37-year-old appealing. No peeling, no washing, readyout of the bag without a need for peeling.man, for example, reported weakness in to eat. Office workers and TV viewers areAnd as is often the case these days, whenthe legs, generalized itching and a change snacking on them, and theyre even show- a product becomes popular, the Internetin his voice 20 minutes after drinking a ing up in childrens lunchboxes. Thatsquacks decide to throw a monkey wrenchglass of carrot juice. He claimed that this just great, since studies about the bene- into the works.had happened on two previous occasions. fits of carrots just keep rolling in. HarvardThose little carrots are poisoning us,Adrenalin and steroids were needed to researchers, for example, recently found athey scream! The proof is the white dis- treat the problem. Generally, though, even strong inverse relationship between dietscoloration that often taints their appear- people who are allergic to raw carrots can rich in carrots and the incidence of stroke.ance! This, they say, is the toxic chlorinereadily tolerate cooked ones. Other prob-Women who ate five or more servings ofthat was used to wash the little guys.lems are even more rare. In a fascinating carrots weekly had a 68 per cent lowerHumbug!While it is true that sometimesreport, an article in The British Journal risk. When 124 lung cancer patients whothe carrots are rinsed in a dilute solutionof Addiction describes the case of three were not regular smokers were comparedof chlorine or chlorine dioxide in orderpatients who suffered withdrawal symp-with 235 controls in terms of what theyto do away with bacteria, the processtoms when they tried to give up eating car-ate, carrots were seen to offer the best pro- has nothing to do with the white discol- rots. Apparently one of them, a 40-year-old tection against the disease. But now someoration, known in the trade as carrotman, ate about five bunches a day in an consumers are having second thoughtsblush. This is the result of two separateattempt to give up smoking. But when his about eating baby carrots because of somefactors. Moisture loss from the surfaceskin turned orange, he decided he better Internet drivel being spread around.of the carrot roughens the surface andgive up the carrots as well. He couldnt! To start with, where do these babiescauses light to be scattered, giving a whiteHe became very irritable when the carrots come from? Well, that depends. Some babyappearance. This can be reversed by mois- were taken away. Interestingly, carrots do carrots are just that. Theyre pulled outtening the carrot. Blush can also occurcontain a psychoactive compound called of the ground when they are still small.when abrasion damages cells on the sur- myristicin, which may explain the addic-But the majority of the tiny carrots weface releasing an enzyme (phenylalaninetion in this case. Of course, most people do snack on are not baby carrots at all, butammonia-lyase, if you must know) thatnot eat enough carrots to experience this baby-cut carrots. They actually startcauses small molecules called phenols toeffect, although undoubtedly some have out life as fully grown carrots but endjoin together to form lignin, an importantgiven it a valiant effort.up being cut into 5 cm long pieces beforestructural substance in plants. It too scat-being fed into a machine that grates offters light and gives a white appearance. the outer layer and rounds off the ends. The process was the brainchild of Mike Yurosek, a California farmer who got tired of consigning carrots to feed for pigs and cows because they were too misshapen to sell to consumers. So Yurosek devised a way to salvage the ugly carrots by cutting and reshaping them into the charming baby carrots. Not only did Yurosek manage to make three little carrots out of one big one, he also managed to triple the price at the same time. Now, that is good business. The largest carrot grower in the U.S is Grimmway, producing nine million pounds of carrots a day from 35,000 planted acres. Company officials noted Yuroseks success and recognized the potential of increasing 12IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'