Many people believe that eating carrots helps you to see better at night, and this idea comes in part from Cunningham's wartime reputation as a night fighter pilot - which was popularly attributed to his eating carrots. Here's the real story:

The eye's retina detects light via rods and cones. The cones detect detail and colour, but need plenty of light to function (like a 'slow' film emulsion). The rods have low acuity and can't distinguish colour at all but need less light (like a 'fast' emulsion) so are used for night vision.

The rods work by virtue of something called rhodopsin (visual purple), an ingredient of which is vitamin A. Therefore a deficiency of vitamin A can lead to night blindness, and night blindness caused in this way can be treated with supplements or foods rich in Vitamin A (carotene) - this includes carrots, but also (better) apricots, dark-leaved vegetables such as spinach, and bilberries.

However, this is about correcting defective night vision by correcting a vitamin deficiency; there is no basis for believing that you can enhance night vision beyond normal levels by taking an overdose of carotene - any more than you can put more petrol in an already full tank. Excessive amounts of carotene can cause the skin to turn orange, though.

Yup good one, and did you know that the carrots in sick are actually pieces of stomach lining? lol

First Aid courses are great for gruesome info.....

Also, did you know that carrots were once purple?

The only way to see better at night is to drink bats blood.

^disturbing.


but the article was quite interesting. *will eat more carrots*
i would like to know more about the "rods and cones" that were mentioned. what, exactly, ARE they?

As far as I'm aware they're the cells at the back of the eye... but don't quote me on that lol

oh, OK.
you wouldn't happen to have a link for that, would you?

Link for Foxy )

There you go

You can send the cheque to.... *LOL*

Edit: Wtf happened there with that smiley sneaking into my link pmsfl another Unexplained Mystery I guess...

That explains why there almost always carrots in your vomit. Thats one great mystery of life solved.

I did not know that they were originally purple! I did read some thing a few days ago about a farmer who had a whole row of them that color though. They made it out like it was some great mystery. Now it would seem that they were just a through back to an earlier form. Great info.

the story goes that carrots were used as a cover by the US airforce when they were developing their fight prep systems. It indeed goes to the time it takes for the rods and cones of the eye to adapt to low level lighting. Rather than reveal to the pilots about light testing, they also had them eating carrots, and gave the cover story that it was the carrots that allowed them to adjust to low light faster (opposed to the lighting conditions in the flight prep/briefing rooms).

my cousin use to eat a lot of carrots because she heard they were good for our eyes then when she was ten her eyes were bad that she needed glasses talk about life's irony.
anyway she doesn't care much for carrots anymore.

Thats the best bit of useless info I've heard in ages, can't wait to tell them down the pub.

Yes, they were bred to be orange by the Dutch, because the royal color of the Netherlands is orange.

You can still buy the purple carrots although I wont be anytime soon.

What about when you vomit and it has orange bits in it that look like carrot but you havent eaten any carrot. Anyone got any ideas