We all have heard, during our childhood, to eat our carrots because they were good for our eyes.  Is this actually true?  The answer is yes and no.  It is not necessarily the carrots so much as it is the vitamin A or beta carotene that is found in them.  Just eating carrots will not improve blindness in the eye but, they will help eye health overall (Winkler).  So, it is important to eat carrots or other vegetable with vitamin A because it is an essential nutrient for the health of our eyes.  This idea was founded after a 1998 John Hopkins study that even a pill that contained vitamin A would improve eye health (Smith).  A lack of vitamin A, especially in developing countries, has lead to blindness (Winkler).  Although, again, no matter how many carrots a person eat, it will not change their vision.  So, yes carrots are good for the health of the eye but they will not change them.  Vitamin A is also found in other naturally orange foods (Winkler).  It is also true that if a person eats too many carrots or orange foods, that the orange pigment will transfer to the skin (Winkler).  So, make sure you watch how many carrots or other orange foods you eat because it can potentially cause the skin to turn orange.  Although it is not harmful to you, it just shows that you may not be eating a balanced diet.

Have you ever wondered how this myth started?  Well, it actually started during WWII, when a night fighter ace, John Cunningham, killed many enemy planes at night (Smith).  Who would have known that carrots would ever be associated with giving people the ability to see better in the dark.  This idea is thought to be come from the Ministry of Information.  Many people even started growing their own carrots and eating more of them because they thought the carrots would give them more of an advantage during the frequent city blackouts (Winkler).  It is very interesting that people thought that carrots could give them a sort of “special power” to see at night.

Works Cited

Winkler, Sarah.  “Are carrots really good for your eyesight?”  19 August 2009.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/eye/carrots-eyesight.htm>  19 September 2014.

Smith, K. Annabell. “A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark Read More: Http://www.smithsonianmagA WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark.” Smithsonian.com. 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/?no-ist>.

Pictures from Google Images and Smithsonian.com