Why are Carrots Sweeter in Winter

By Anupum Pant

I knew that carrots don’t give you a superhuman vision – a myth propagated during the times of war. But I didn’t know that carrots are sweeter in the winter!

It’s so easy for us to protect ourselves in the winter. You could just switch on the heater and there you are. But it isn’t easy for plants because they can’t move, or do anything else about the cold. However, over the thousands of years for which plants evolved, they figured some amazing ways to protect themselves. Chillies certainly know one way to protect themselves. Cranberries know how to move around. But carrots know how to protect themselves in the winter.

Carrots have lots of water in them. So, during winters ice crystals can form inside and destroy them at cellular level. To avoid this from happening carrots know that they need to increase their sugar content during the winter. More sugar content means lower probability of getting frozen in the snow. That’s the reason they are sweeter in winter!

University of California’s Fig.1 series, Molecular Biologist Liz Roth-Johnson explains…

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