Remember ever watching The Magic School Bus, either with your kids or by yourself? There's an episode that always resonates with me when I think of The Magic School Bus, the one where Arnold continuously eats Seaweedies and turns orange--they were high in carotene. Of course, carotene is related to carrots and if you eat tons and tons of it you can in fact turn orange (we could then use another color of the rainbow to describe people?). Here's a site by a man who tries to turn himself orange by eating lots of carrots, he calls it The Orange Man Project:
http://orangeman.commo.de/.
Well when I was younger, knowing that carotene was connected to carrots--I didn't really like carrots--and how carotene helped better vision, I would scarf down carrots, kind of like a squirrel feasting on acorns. I hoped that one day my eyesight would miraculously get better, but it never did. I came to realize that food plays a large part in diet, but, honestly, it's no cure for cancer and what not. It can help reduce or increase certain physical attributes and capabilities, but you can't completely rely on it to solve all your problems.
Pshaw!
So don't binge on carrots for better eyesight! Your efforts will only turn you orange!
What foods did you binge on that you thought would help you...but then DIDN'T?
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Comments (8)
I never ate carrots like a maniac, but I remember eating a lot of them in my soups because my parents told me it would improve my vision. That The Magic School Bus episode did always stick with me, so I probably ate less than I would have if I hadn't remembered Arnold all orange and scary, hahaha.
I miss that show.
aww i loved that episode!
i luv that "eye doctor" carrot pic :)
Oh my god, my friends and I were talking about this exact thing earlier today. They brought up eating carrots and then I started to talk about that Magic School Bus episode...
Yeah. Carrots never actually really did much to improve your vision... during WWII, when the British had radar and the Germans didn't, the British started a rumour that their pilots could navigate well in the dark because... of all the carrots they ate. Any non-espionage related benefits are marginal, I'm afraid.
My grans has a high beta-carotene and her doctor forbade her from eating carrots and anything orange for the rest of the year. She didn't turn orange though (sorry to burst bubbles).
The amount of carotene you'd have to ingest to turn you orange isn't humanly possible. The closest you could get is a nice yellow tinge, so if you combine it with niacin, which can turn you red, you'll get orange.
I hate carrots. I've never liked them... and I just recently got glasses. >.<