Eating carrot will help you see in the dark

There is a slice of truth in this claim, but certainly not as much as it is made out to be. The claim has its roots in World War II propaganda. The British spread the rumor that its fighter-bomber gunners could shoot down German planes (image, below) at night because these air warriors were eating a sizable number of carrots every day. The rumor was used to prevent the Germans from discovering that Britain had developed radar, which really can see in the dark. As it turned out, the radar proved to be a game changer during the Battle of Britain which began in July, 1940 and ended in May, 1941. The German air force retreated and vacated the British sky. But what was it about carrots that made the rumor plausible? A link between eye diseases and poor diet had been known for more than two thousand years, but it was not before 1913 that vitamin A was discovered and its deficiency was proved to be cause of night blindness twenty years later. Scientists found that the human body needs vitamin A to make the chemical retinal, without which our eyes cannot absorb light. However, only tiny amounts of all vitamins are necessary and overindulging in certain ones, particularly fat-soluble like vitamin A and D, can prove harmful. An excess of vitamin A in your diet (or ingested from supplement) can accumulate in your body, leading to toxic effects such as headaches, dizziness, vomiting, liver problems and, ironically, blurred vision.