Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel Bomb here with a classic episode for you.
Speaker 1: In this one, we look into the myth that eating
Speaker 1: carrots can give you super eyesight and the propaganda campaign
Speaker 1: that's likely behind it. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb Here.
Speaker 1: Anyone else have the common childhood dream to be able
Speaker 1: to hit clay pigeons with a crossbow in the dark
Speaker 1: at three hundred yards while riding on the back of
Speaker 1: a beautiful pegasus. Just me, anyway, When I told my
Speaker 1: parents this, they told me, Lauren, if you want to
Speaker 1: have that kind of hyper acute night vision, you've got
Speaker 1: to eat your carrots. It's common wisdom. Eat a lot
Speaker 1: of carrots if you want eyes like a jet pilot.
Speaker 1: But do carrots really give you better eyesight? The short
Speaker 1: answer is, if you already have enough vitamin A in
Speaker 1: your diet, probably not. But if you don't, a big
Speaker 1: old sack of carrots might be exactly what you need.
Speaker 1: Carrots are full of a nutrient called beta carotene, which
Speaker 1: is a kind of natural dye for fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1: Plants to use beta carotine in their bodies as a
Speaker 1: pigment that gives them a yellow or orange color. But
Speaker 1: when you eat foods containing this natural pigment, like sweet potatoes, spinach,
Speaker 1: or carrots, the beta carotene gets absorbed by your intestinal
Speaker 1: wall and converted into vitamin A. So here's the true
Speaker 1: part of the myth. If you want to maintain normal
Speaker 1: eye health, you've got to get enough vitamin A, and
Speaker 1: carrots are a perfectly good source. In regions where people
Speaker 1: don't get much vitamin A in their diets, vision problems
Speaker 1: are rampant. Without vitamin A, the photoreceptors in your eyes
Speaker 1: start to deteriorate, and your corneas can actually vanish. But
Speaker 1: if you don't have a vitamin A deficiency and your
Speaker 1: vision is already healthy, stuffing your face with carrots or
Speaker 1: any other source of the vitamin will not lead to
Speaker 1: superhuman eyeball powers. So where did we get the idea
Speaker 1: that carrots can do to your eyes what spinach does
Speaker 1: to popeye's forearms. Believe it or not, this myth got
Speaker 1: a big boost from World War II Baganda. During World
Speaker 1: War II, the United Kingdom underwent air raids conducted by
Speaker 1: Axis powers. The German left Buffo would strike at British
Speaker 1: cities in the night. Over the years, the British Royal
Speaker 1: Air Force had some success pushing back the German air attacks.
Speaker 1: One explanation for their success is that from nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: nine onward, British pilots had access to a technology called
Speaker 1: on board airborne interception radar to help them spot enemy
Speaker 1: planes for a great distance. But the UK Ministry of
Speaker 1: Food launched a propaganda campaign claiming that its fighter pilots
Speaker 1: could pick out enemy aircraft in the dark because they
Speaker 1: honed their eyes with carrots. Some sources have speculated that
Speaker 1: this story was designed to hide the existence of the
Speaker 1: Royal Air Forces on board radar system from the enemy.
Speaker 1: Another explanation might be simple economics. Germans set up blockades
Speaker 1: to use starvation and discomfort as weapons, which meant that
Speaker 1: many goods like sugar had to be rationed. The UK
Speaker 1: government encouraged its citizens to turn to sugar substitutes. For example, carrots,
Speaker 1: which were plentiful even during the war, could be used
Speaker 1: as a sweetener in foods like carrot pudding and carrot fudge,
Speaker 1: or as a substitute for meat in the infamous Wolton pie.
Speaker 1: Carrots were so plentiful because they could be grown by
Speaker 1: citizens at home and around their communities in a so
Speaker 1: called victory gardens. Food supplies were loaded due to those blockades,
Speaker 1: and canned fruits and vegetables largely went to feed the military.
Speaker 1: Citizens were encouraged to make up the difference. The slogan
Speaker 1: of the campaign was dig for Victory. Two million private
Speaker 1: gardens were constructed and some public ones as well. The
Speaker 1: dry moat surrounding the Tower of London was filled in
Speaker 1: with growing vegetables. Today's episode is based on a videoscript
Speaker 1: that Joan Kormick wrote Poor House stuffworks dot com. The
Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
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