Name: How we fell for the carrot vision myth
Uploaded: 2026-03-26T16:43:00.000Z
Duration: 7 min 54 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Carrots have been around for thousands of years.

Sentences with advanced comparative

There are even records of carrot seeds from as early as 3000 BC,

Adverbs of degree

but the most famous thing about them is pretty recent.

There are hair on these, best thing in the world for eye carrots.

Sergeant, you need to eat a few more carrots to improve your eyesight.

Mom, is it true if you eat carrots you can see in the dark?

I don't believe eating carrots will help you see in the dark.

In fact, in some conditions like retinitis pigmentosa, taking too much vitamin A can actually be toxic.

So why did we grow up thinking this, and where did the myth come from?

Well, the answer actually takes us back to World War II, with a story of propaganda and secret British technology.

The humble carrot, or Docus carota, is a member of the Apacii family, along with parsnips, parsley, dill, fennel, and

Carrots find their origin in Central Asia, with evidence pointing to their exact birth being in present-day Afghanistan,

but they quickly spread throughout North Africa, Europe, and

In an early book of herbal medicines written by Pedonius Deuscurides in around year 65, he writes that the carrot seed is "good for ye painful discharge of urine in potions." He also wrote that carrots were good for wild animal bites and even helpful for people trying to conceive.

In fact, it kind of seems like the ancient Greeks thought carrots were good for just about everything but eyesight.

And it's in this 7th-century manuscript of Deuscurides' book that we have our first-ever image of an orange carrot, because for centuries, carrots weren't usually orange.

They were purple, white, yellow, and other colors of fancy carrots you see at bougie farmers' markets.

The iconic orange carrot that we eat today wasn't popularized until Dutch farmers bred them in the 1600s.

And some claim that the orange was chosen to honor William of Orange,

and orange remains an important color in the Netherlands to this day.

From then until the 1900s, carrots slowly became more popular.

We can see them showing up more and more in the kitchen,

As recently as 100 years ago, the carrot wasn't quite the iconic, ubiquitous vegetable that it is today.

And then during World War II, that changed, thanks to one ingenious piece of propaganda.

500 German bombers and Messerschmitt fighters roared over the English coast.

By November of 1940, London found its nights filled with terror from the skies that made sleep above ground impossible.

During World War II, the Germans sustained a bombing campaign in the United Kingdom called the Blitz,

and the German bomber planes frequently struck at night.

But the British developed a new secret radar that would help them in these nighttime raids.

It meant that you were more difficult to detect, but

more importantly, you were able to detect the enemy more clearly.

And there was one pilot who made great use of this new radar technology: John Cunningham.

He was one of the first pilots to test this out, and he became highly successful.

He actually shot down at least 20 enemy aircraft and probably more.

The Royal Air Force, who did not want the Nazis to recognize that we'd gained this advantage, they came up with this idea that if they could secure a well-known pilot, they could then persuade the British people.

He had this exceptional night vision because he was very fond of carrots and he ate many of them.

So he was nicknamed Cats' Eye Cunningham for his ability to spot bombers at night,

and the British told the newspapers that his uncanny ability to see in the dark came from a certain orange vegetable.

There's no mention of this particular campaign and that it was actually having any impact on sort of Nazi reactions.

At home, the myth that carrots could help your eyesight was spreading quickly.

Along with the stories of Cats' Eye Cunningham that they were feeding the newspapers, Britain launched the Dig for Victory campaign because the British had another vital reason to convince the population that carrots were good for them.

During the Second World War, as Britain faced food shortages, the government encouraged their people to grow their own food in home gardens.

And with limited space and a difficult climate, one of the easiest crops to grow was carrots.

The Ministry of Food put out lots of carrot-based recipes like carrot treacle, carrot flawn, and

And iced carrots on a stick sold at candy stores to replace lollipops due to sugar rationing.

And they developed characters aimed at convincing children to eat carrots, like this guy, Doctor Carrot.

Combined with the stories about Cats' Eye Cunningham, the myth that carrots could make you see in the dark was cemented.

Today, the carrot's one of the most popular vegetables.

It's ranked fourth in the world, behind only its old friend, potato peat.

Another piece of British propaganda that I can't really get into, but Google potato peat.

Speaking of delicious carrots, this video is presented by a delicious yogurt, Stony Field Organic.

For over 40 years, Stony Field Organic has been a champion for truth in our food system.

There's a lot of misinformation out there.

That's why they believe in high-quality ingredients to ensure that what they put on shelves is the best product for you and your family.

The milk they use comes from family farms across the country, like Mollybrook Farm in Cabot, Vermont.

It's USDA organic certified, which means no pesticides, no antibiotics, and no growth hormones.

So when you're on your next grocery run, consider checking out Stony Field Organic yogurt.

It's also important to note that Stony Field Organic didn't dictate the content of the story,

but their support made this tasty reporting possible.

I've heard all kinds of interesting myths,

and the interesting thing about myths that last a long time is there is a particle of truth to it.

Yes, we do need vitamin A and other things, carotenoids, to see better, to actually see.

I'm not sure they actually make it better as much as they keep it from going blind if you don't have vitamin A.

So it's not so much that carrots can help you see better, but

people who don't get enough vitamin A do actually experience some negative effects to their eyesight.

They stop being able to see at night, and over time they lose even daytime vision.

The vast majority of us get enough vitamins if you're eating a normal, healthy diet.

And the things that are best for your eye health might have nothing to do with your diet at all.

Multiple pieces of data have shown us that people who look at phones a lot, which is 100% of the population at this point, end up getting myopia over time.

Data shows this very clearly, which is to get about an hour of sunlight during high sun times.

Not look at the sun, just be outside and not look at any near target.

So if you grew up believing that carrots were good for your eyesight or could even make you see in the dark, then you fell for World War II British propaganda.

But that might not be such a bad thing, because carrots really are good for you.

And in that sense, maybe Doctor Carrot was onto something.

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Really good eyesight from all the carrots.