Can Carrots Actually Enhance Your Eyesight?

From an early age, parents have used the phrase “carrots will give you supervision and help you grow big and strong” to convince kids to eat all their vegetables. But is there any logic to this theory or is it just an easy trick for parents to use? If spinach can give Pop-eye super strength, how hard is it for carrots to make us just a little more super? Ultimately, science says no – carrots do not contain any super powers.

carrots

Despite this conclusion, carrots contain a type of Vitamin A called beta carotene. Vitamin A is important because “a deficiency in this vitamin can lead to vision problems and eventual blindness” (SFGate.com). Although carrots cannot help to enhance your overall eye sight, they do provide the necessary vitamins and nutrients that protect eye health and prolong a person’s overall vision compared to those lack Vitamin A.

So what happens to eyes when they’re lacking in Vitamin A? “[O]ver time, the photoreceptors in the eye begin to deteriorate, disrupting vision” (SFGate.com). Maintaining a well balanced diet composed of proteins, nutrients and vitamins will ensure the longevity of not only your senses, but one’s overall mental and physical health. Although “a diet of carrots won’t give a blind person 20/20 vision,” (howstuffworks.com) carrots undoubtedly play a vital role in sustaining overall eye health. However, if a person lacking in Vitamin A starts to include regular amounts of Vitamin A into their diet, whether through mean of carrots or a multivitamin, he or she will begin to notice improvements in both their central and peripheral vision (SFGate.com).

Although carrots cannot give you super vision, there are plenty of fruits and vegetables that provide special vitamins and nutrients to help you feel your best. Love strawberries and good dental hygiene? Strawberries are high in salicylic acid, which serves as “a natural tooth whitener” (fitnessmagazine.com). Need a potassium boost to prevent muscle cramps? One baked sweet potato “contains nearly 30 percent more [potassium] than a banana. . .which helps ensure proper muscle movement and prevents cramping” (fitnessmagazine.com) The list of healthy fruits, vegetables and their benefits is ever-growing and proves that eating a healthy balanced diet definitely has its perks.

strawberry

Work Cited

“Add More Color to Your Diet.” Fitness Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/healthy-eating/superfoods/add-more-color-to-your-diet/#page=2>.
“Does Eating Carrots Actually Increase Your Vision?.” Healthy Eating. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/eating-carrots-actually-increase-vision-9821.html>.
“HowStuffWorks “Are carrots really good for your eyesight?”.” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/eye/carrots-eyesight.htm>.

4 thoughts on “Can Carrots Actually Enhance Your Eyesight?

  1. Patrick Emil Jackson

    This is a very intriguing post that examines evidence contrary to the myth that carrots can give you 20/20 vision. Your conclusion that, “Although carrots cannot help to enhance your overall eye sight, they do provide the necessary vitamins and nutrients that protect eye health and prolong a person’s overall vision,” is enough of an incentive for me to keep them in as part of my regular diet. A randomized trial that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in November 2007, found that male participants whose diets were supplemented with beta-carotene over an extended period demonstrated significant improvements in verbal memory, category fluency and general cognition compared to the control group. The scientists believe that this result is because the high levels of beta-carotene, which you describe in your post. After looking into the topic of nutrition, I came across an article that describes how different colors of fruits and vegetables can indicate different nutrient profiles. Like carrots, many other orange and even yellow fruits and vegetables are rich in beta-carotene which was not surprising but interesting nonetheless. Overall, great post!

  2. Gregory Joseph Macqueen

    Like many others, my mother has always been big on making sure I consume a proper amount of fruits and vegetables. I have never been a very picky eater so I have no problem eating an assortment of healthy foods such as carrots and strawberries, but I never really gave much thought to whether or not these foods can really improve certain parts of your body. Upon further research, it seems as though you were correct in that many studies have been performed showing that carrots contain beta-carotene that your body converts into vitamin A. According to an article on spoonuniversity, “Beta-carotene goes through your blood stream to your retina where it is converted into a chemical called retinal.” This eventually converts into vision. Although helthmad.com reports that some researchers believe carrots do not improve vision and too much vitamin A can actually be toxic to vision, the vast majority say that carrots are good for eye health. It is understandable for some researchers to think that too much vitamin A can be bad but as long as you eat in moderation, throwing carrots into your diet sounds like a good idea to me.

    http://michigan.spoonuniversity.com/food-thought/mythbusters-carrots/
    http://healthmad.com/health/do-carrots-improve-your-eyesight/

  3. Stephanie Rose Polinak

    Vegetables are obviously really beneficial to our health but I still seem to struggle with eating them. I just don’t find them tasteful on their own and usually only consume them when they’re in other dishes. I know first hand that I have some vitamin deficiencies because I don’t eat vegetables enough. Since I found that out, I’ve been trying to eat more of them especially carrots. It’s not a huge problem that affects my overall health but it will definitely help in the long run! Here are some “super foods” that could be eaten to improve one’s health: http://www.joybauer.com/photo-gallery/top-10-superfoods.aspx

  4. Xiaotong Wang

    Yeah, after reading this article I realized that my mom is not the only mom who keep holding “eating carrot and being a superman” this thought. Although I quickly got known of the truth that carrot is not a “superman pill” I still keep taking it in my daily diet because of the VA in it. But I was wondering that if the carrot is boiled by water or soup, can it bring the same quantity of VA to us? because the raw carrot tasted really bad. Besides the VA carrot contained, the diet fiber in it is very good to human’s digest system and can help to clean our body. Seeing in this way, even though the carrot cannot give us superpower, it can prove us the healthy life!

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