Food Myths: Do Carrots Improve Your Eyesight?

[Narrator] Carrots are great.

They're crunchy,

beautiful,

sweet,

loaded with vitamins.

But, can they really help you see better?

Eating carrots improves your vision.

True or false?

Carrots are full of beta carotene,

which your body converts into vitamin A.

Vitamin A is great for your eyes.

It can help prevent cataracts,

and support normal eye function,

like being able to adjust your eyes

when you walk into a dark room versus a bright room.

The thing is

carrots aren't the only vegetables full of molecules

that your body can convert into vitamin A.

All kinds of greens, tomatoes, beets,

they all have plenty of vitamin A precursors.

Not to mention, a ton of other valuable vitamins as well.

So, there's really nothing exclusively beneficial

about eating carrots to support healthy eyes.

And, while vitamin A may be good for your eyes overall,

it can't correct or improve your vision specifically.

That is, it can't actually change

how in or out of focus

certain things appear in your line of sight.

If you're near- or far-sighted,

eating all the carrots in the world

isn't going to get you any closer to 20/20.

So, put your glasses back on

'cause this food myth?

It's false.

But you should still eat your veggies.