YSAK 66: Perpetuating an urban myth about carrots

Karen forwards me this head-scratcher. Lesson will follow, after this commercial break:

15 Carrots Free or best offer
Price: Free

Eat your vegetables. They will help you see in the dark. Free or be$t offer. Serious inquiries only.

P.S. Interesting trades accepted

Free or best offer? "Hey, I know they're free ... but would you take ten bux? It's all I've got!"

15 carrots. I like carrots. But carrots aren't ... y'know ... expensive.

Now, the lesson.

The notion that carrots help you see in the dark is, as the young people say, bull puckey.

The amazing urban legends reference site, snopes.com, has a complete article explaining such, but they don't allow cut-and-paste. Read it your own darned self.

Another site called Playnormous Health Games breaks it down:

"This is actually government propaganda from World War II. The British had just started using an advanced technology, radar, to detect German bombing raids but wanted to keep it a secret for obvious reasons. So, what did the Brits do? Their intelligence division started a big rumor turned health myth that they were feeding their pilots carrots to improve their vision. Crazy, huh?"

Bottom line: free carrots are good. Carrots are good. Adding carrots to your diet is wise. Overdosing on carrots is a bad idea. And overdosing on carrots to improve your eyesight is stupidity.

That said, eat your vegetables, chill'un.