Step into the garden in midsummer and by ten in the morning the sun is already landing hot on your forearms. Pull your straw hat down, crouch over the carrot rows to pull weeds, and somewhere between the UV and the sweat you start to notice that your body spends the whole day enduring something. Here's the thing: the carrot growing in that row has also served as a benchmark in the labs that study exactly that kind of endurance.
Carrot seed oil became the benchmark in a UV-protection experiment
A team of chemists recently synthesized several new UV-blocking compounds and tested how well they performed. The yardstick they measured against was oil pressed from carrot seeds. Carrot seed oil has long been known as a gentle sun-protective ingredient, and over time it settled into the role of a reference point for comparison in the lab.
One of the new compounds, the researchers report, blocked UV light better than carrot seed oil did. These compounds were built in a lab, though, so they aren't sitting inside the carrots we eat. Even so, there's something here worth a gardener's attention: a plain, everyday root vegetable is the example nature offers whenever the conversation turns to compounds that stand up to sunlight.
Antioxidants help the body slow oxidation down
The same study also measured the antioxidant capacity of the new compounds. If the word antioxidant feels abstract, try thinking about it this way. As we breathe and spend time in the sun, our bodies are constantly producing unstable molecules called free radicals. In modest amounts they cause no trouble, but when they pile up, cells wear out and skin is more easily damaged.
Antioxidant compounds help slow that process. And they aren't far away. The beta-carotene in carrots, the lycopene in tomatoes, the many pigments in spinach and lettuce — all of them are antioxidants that nature handed over. As a rule, the deeper a vegetable's color, the more generously it supplies them. Harvesting a range of seasonal vegetables from your own plot and eating them is a far more immediate antioxidant strategy than waiting on a new compound from a laboratory.
What you can take from the garden today
Here are a few things you can put into practice right now, out in the summer beds and at the dinner table.
- Head out in the early morning or near sunset instead of at midday. That's when UV levels are at their lowest.
- Block the sun first with a straw hat and long sleeves. It's the simplest protection there is — no compound required.
- Put a range of deeply colored vegetables on the table. Carrots, tomatoes, spinach, and bell peppers are all good picks.
- Carrots give up their beta-carotene more readily when lightly sautéed in oil. Try cooking them with a spoonful of oil.
Tonight, slice one carrot thin and sauté it in a little oil. It's a way to add one more garden-grown compound to your body, and to close out a day spent standing up to the summer sun.
