A short transcript excerpt from a discussion (likely from a video) about the origin of the myth that carrots improve night vision. The speakers explain that the claim was British World War II propaganda to conceal radar development — not a real effect of carrots — and that the myth encouraged people to eat more carrots.
I love the title of your new book, Beyond Carrots, because even as a doctor, that's what I believe. Like, you just need to eat some carrots for your eye House.
I just wanted to share, like, a little bit of historical perspective here. You know, we're talking about carrots. It's probably, like, the biggest urban myth that's been propagated through the years. Where did it come from? So it actually came from World War II, where the Germans were coming and they were bombing England in the nighttime. But the British were able to shoot down the German planes, and the Germans couldn't figure out, how are they shooting down our planes? How are they finding out where we are? And so the British started spreading this propaganda that, oh, our pilots are eating carrots. And so because they're eating so many carrots, they have excellent night vision, and that's what's allowing them to shoot down the German planes. In reality, the British had developed radar technology, and back then it was, like, brand new. So they knew they had ra. They were able to detect these planes, shoot them down, but they started spreading this propaganda that it's carrots. So everybody started eating carrots.
