Carrots Are they good for the eyes?

Carrots: Are they really good for the eyes?

04/02/2015

„Rabbits do not need glasses because they like to eat carrots.“ A saying in this way probably most people have heard times. Is it really true that carrots are good for the eyes?

Healthy vegetable
Carrots are rich in various vitamins and minerals and also have low calories. In addition, they provide lots of fiber and are therefore good for stimulating digestion. Healthy is the vegetables so always. But carrots are also really good for the eyes, as is repeatedly claimed? „Carrots contain vitamin A, the deficiency of which can lead to night blindness, dehydration of the cornea and even their melting“, Prof. Gisbert Richard from the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf told the news agency dpa. Although "Vitamin A's eyes do not get better, a deficiency can have dire consequences for the eyesight".

Valuable Vitamin A.
As the agency writes, vitamin A is an important component of the visual pigment rhodopsin. In addition, it is needed to maintain the normal cell structure of the cornea. A vitamin A deficiency may arise, among other things, from one-sided nutrition or due to diarrheal diseases. Then it helps, according to the information short-term, to swallow vitamin A. As the expert said, in the long term if there is a shortage, the diet must be changed. Foods that also contain vitamin A in addition to carrots include pork liver and color-intensive vegetables such as spinach, kale or lamb's lettuce.

Cosmetics with vitamin A.
But you can also get too much of the vitamin. For example, last year the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warned against excessive vitamin A intake via cosmetic products. As reported at the time, too high an intake of vitamin A may lead to headache and nausea, with chronic high intake it may even lead to liver disease and scaling of the skin. Therefore, the additional intake should be limited by cosmetics containing vitamin A. (Ad)