Health

Carrots and Eyesight

Vitamin A and its effect on eyesight is interesting because in addition to the actual peer reviewed evidence that it has a benefits to eyesight runs parallel to World War II propaganda that was used to conceal the ability of the British government to detect German aircraft in 1940.

A prominent fighter pilot of the time was nicknamed ”Cat Eyes” and newspapers of the time were told that the reason for how many planes he shot down at night was because of carrots, and advertisements were presented to the British public that carrots would help them see better during the mandatory blackouts (Smith, 2013).

As with many pop recommendations for nutrition, the implication is that carrots and the vitamin itself have the ability to improve vision over healthy levels by taking an increased amount. This is not true. Not only can “eating too many carrots…cause your skin to appear yellow or yellow-orange” from excess carotene (Duke Health, 2013) consuming too much preformed vitamin A can actually cause blurred vision (NIH ODS, 2022).

References

Duke Health. (2013). Myth or Fact: Eating carrots improves eyesight. https://www.dukehealth.org/blog/myth-or-fact-eating-carrots-improves-eyesight

NIH ODS. (2022). Office of Dietary Supplements - Vitamin A and carotenoids. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-Consumer/

Smith, K. A. (2013, November 16). A WWII propaganda campaign popularized the myth that carrots help you see in the dark. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/