This Food Savvy Friday focuses on common food legends, like whether carrots help your eyesight, if eating at night causes weight gain, and more. We will also delve deeper into each legend to determine how real they are—and where exactly they came from.
Legend 1: Eating carrots helps your eyesight.
Well to start, carrots are an amazing food and great source of nutrients. They are rich in Beta Carotene, an orange pigment that our bodies can convert into Vitamin A. This is great because Vitamin A is essential for good eye health. However, eating an excess amount of carrots won’t automatically give you 20/20 vision. In fact, the idea that carrots will drastically improve your eyesight is said to have originated during World War II, when the British claimed that their pilots were eating carrots to help them see in the dark. In reality, they were trying to hide the fact that they had new radar technology in their planes for flying during the night. So, although carrots are a great asset in any diet, eating too many won’t help you see in the dark.
Legend 2: Eating at night causes weight gain.
This legend is regularly disputed in the world of nutrition and food. Although research is still being done, and there are likely some metabolic benefits to having a longer overnight fast, it’s important to remember that what we eat is more important than when we eat. Eating at night is often blamed for weight gain, but in reality, it probably has more to do with the fact that eating at night usually consists of less healthy, high-caloric foods like buttery popcorn, chips, and ice cream. These types of foods are more likely to be eaten as a late-night snack than vegetables or fresh fruit.
Legend 3: Several small meals are better than three large ones.
Research is still being done on this topic, but similar to our second legend, what we eat still counts for more than when we are eating it. Whether you’re choosing to eat six small meals a day or two large meals a day, the most important thing is to choose fresh foods that contain the necessary vitamins and nutrients, that will fuel your body to feel its best.
Legend 4: Taking Vitamin C will prevent a cold.
Just like Vitamin A in carrots, Vitamin C is essential to the human diet and has a lot of wonderful nutrition benefits. Our bodies use it to form new structures, such as blood vessels, cartilage and muscles. It’s also important for the healing process, and helps the body absorb and store Iron. Because your body doesn’t produce Vitamin C, it’s necessary to get it from your diet. It’s common in citrus fruits, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and more. But, if you’ve ever been told to drink a glass of orange juice so that you avoid catching a cold, know that this probably won’t do much. Although some research suggests that Vitamin C will shorten the duration or severity of a cold, it’s ability to prevent a cold is a myth.
The next time you hear a common food legend, look into the background of the topic. Even if some of these legends turn out to be myths, that doesn’t mean that the foods associated aren’t still beneficial. And as far as eating habits, the best way to approach these legends is to find what works for your body and stick with it. Physical and mental well-being is ultimately the most important aspect of nutrition, so finding what makes your body feel at its prime is the number one priority.