“Carrots improve your eyesight”: the story of a phrase born in 1940
It is probably the most repeated sentence in the history of ophthalmology, and one of the most misunderstood. Born in the winter of 1940, it hides one real biochemical fact under a mountain of exaggeration. What vitamin A actually does for night vision, what the large trials found, and the causes worth looking for when you see less well after dark.