It’s common wisdom that eating a balanced diet is best for optimum health, and this has been confirmed by nutritionists.
Carrots are a commonly consumed vegetable that most people enjoy, fried, baked, boiled, and raw, and so here’s a summary of how many carrots you should include in your diet, and whether it’s possible to eat too many carrots.
It’s possible to eat too many carrots.
Carrots are high in potassium, and too much potassium can lead to heart disease according to the National Kidney Foundation.
A cup of carrots contains 20% of your recommended daily intake of potassium, so 5 cups of carrots is too much.
There can be some concerns about getting poisoning from eating carrots, and you may have heart that carrots can make your skin a yellow color.
, below I will explain whether it’s possible to get food poisoning from carrots.
How Many Carrots Are Toxic?
There’s a maximum amount of carrots that you should eat in a day, as explained in cups.
But, here’s how many carrots you can eat in a day before it’s toxic based on the nutrients that carrots contain.
Consuming more than 16 average sized carrots is toxic.
This will give you too much potassium, and manganese.
There are other vitamins and minerals that are in high amounts.
But, these are not toxic if you consume more than the recommended daily intake of them.
The other vitamins and minerals that are in high amounts in carrots are per half a cup:
- Vitamin C – 10% of the daily RDI
- Vitamin K – 16% of the daily RDI
- Sugar – 19% of the daily RDI
- Fiber – 11.0% of the daily RDI
- Manganese – 7% of the daily RDI
Here’s also of summary of whether it’s possible to consume too much of these nutrients, and if so what the negative effects are:
Nutrient | Are there any negative effects from consuming too much | Negative effects if application |
Vitamin C | Yes | Diarrhea |
Vitamin K | No | – |
Sugar | Yes | But, it’s inconclusive based on scientific studies that consuming from natural sources is harmful |
Fiber | Yes | Excessive gas,constipation, and bloating |
Manganese | Yes | Reduced growth rate, lack of appetite, anemia, and reproductive issues |
All of the nutrients in carrots that are found in high amounts except for vitamin K and sugar can cause negative health effects.
Too much fiber, and too much vitamin C have relatively mild symptoms.
But, manganese has quite serious health issues.
Based on the amount of each of these nutrients, here’s the maximum you can eat of carrots, to avoid the negative effects of consuming too much of each of these nutrients.
- Vitamin C – 5 cups, 16 carrots
- Vitamin K – not applicable as doesn’t have any negative effects
- Sugar – not applicable as doesn’t have any negative effects
- Fiber – 5 cups, 16 carrots
- Manganese – 7 cups, 21 carrots
Based on all of these numbers, provided you don’t consume more than 5 cups of carrots per day, you won’t be consuming enough to cause negative health effects.
The one caveat is that it’s very likely the other foods you consume will also have some of these nutrients.
It’s clear that 5 cups is a lot more than me or you would typically consume in a day.
But, to be on the safe side you’re likely best to consume a maximum of half that to account for the other foods you consume.
Which would be 8 carrots.
So, if you consume an average amount, say one serving as part of a meal per day, you very likely will only eat 2 to 3 carrots per day, which is well below a safe range.
Cooking foods can change the number of nutrients they contain.
Here’s a table that shows how the nutrients in carrots differ based on the way they’re cooked:
Nutrient per cup | Carrots, raw | Carrots, boiled | Carrots, roasted | Carrots, fried |
Protein | 2.00% | 2.00% | 1.80% | 1.76% |
Fat | 0.00% | 0.00% | 8.64% | 5.00% |
Calories | 2.00% | 2.00% | 2.84% | 2.34% |
Carbs | 3.00% | 3.00% | 3.64% | 3.70% |
Fiber, total dietary | 11.00% | 12.00% | 10.80% | 10.56% |
Sugars | 19.58% | 14.58% | 18.75% | 18.33% |
Calcium, Ca | 3.00% | 3.00% | 3.30% | unknown |
Iron, Fe | 2.00% | 2.00% | 2.00% | unknown |
Magnesium, Mg | 3.00% | 2.00% | unknown | unknown |
Phosphorus, P | 4.00% | 3.00% | unknown | unknown |
Potassium, K | 9.00% | 7.00% | 9.00% | unknown |
Sodium, Na | 3.00% | 2.00% | 16.22% | 2.98% |
Zinc, Zn | 2.00% | 1.00% | unknown | unknown |
Copper, Cu | 2.00% | 1.00% | unknown | unknown |
Manganese, Mn | 7.00% | 8.00% | unknown | unknown |
Selenium, Se | 0.00% | 1.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin C | 10.00% | 6.00% | 11.70% | unknown |
Thiamin | 4.00% | 4.00% | unknown | unknown |
Riboflavin | 3.00% | 3.00% | unknown | unknown |
Niacin | 5.00% | 3.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin B-6 | 7.00% | 8.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin B-12 | 0.00% | 0.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin A | 334.00% | 341.00% | 319.80% | unknown |
Vitamin E | 3.00% | 5.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin D | 0.00% | 0.00% | unknown | unknown |
Vitamin K | 16.00% | 17.00% | unknown | unknown |
Total | 454.58% | 450.58% | 408.49% | 44.67% |
I did a full rundown of these numbers and summarized the important info in this article that explains if raw carrots have more sugar than cooked carrots.
Can You Get Carrot Poisoning?
Virtually all foods you buy won’t give you poisoning provided they’re prepared correctly, and you don’t consume very large quantities.
But, it’s important to know how much is too much, and if there are any known negative effects from eating certain foods.
So, below is a summary of whether it’s possible to get poisoning from eating carrots.
You can get carrot poisoning.
Carrot poisoning occurs if you eat too many carrots or if the carrots have mold on them.
The upper limit of the number of carrots you should eat in a day is 16 average-sized carrots per day.
Doing so will reach your recommended daily intake of potassium.
Carrots contain high amounts of certain vitamins and minerals.
It’s OK to consume more than the recommended daily intake of some vitamins and minerals.
For example, too much Vitamin K is not bad according to medical professionals.
Carrots are also known to turn your skin yellow or orange. Here’s an entertaining video that explains it:
Having a glow on your skin will often get some compliments from people.
You may have heard that carrots can give your skin a natural glow.
But, I wanted to know if this was actually true, so I looked into it and summarized the answer to this question in this article about whether carrots make your skin glow.
Can You Get Food Poisoning from Carrot Juice?
Juicing fruits and vegetables makes for a delicious and nutritious drink.
When I first tried carrot juice I immediately loved it.
If you’ve had some food poisoning-like symptoms after drinking carrot juice, it’s important to know if carrot juice can cause it, here’s what I found.
It’s generally not possible to get food poisoning from carrot juice unless the carrots were moldy.
Mold growing on carrots can be toxic, and give you food poisoning symptoms, such as vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea.
Also, if the carrot juice is rancid it can give you food poisoning.
Provided the carrots used to make the carrot juice weren’t moldy, and the carrot juice wasn’t off, then you won’t get food poisoning from drinking carrot juice.
I’m Chris Watson & the Founder of EatForLonger.com. I’m a food and wellbeing enthusiast researching and sharing foodstuffs and simple food-based concepts, such as fasting and clean eating.
I hope it inspires you to make tiny changes to what you eat and when you eat while optimizing your healthspan and all-around well-being.
Read more About Me here.