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Short Stuff: Carrots and Your Eyes · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm josh, there's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: chucking this short stuff. It's the shortest of the stuffs.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I think, I believe I'm right. You ever heard the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: uh the old kids song Carrots, carrots good for your heart.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: The more you eat, the better your eyes. No, who
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: wrote that? I did? Just now, Okay, that's fine then
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: if it was off the cuff. But I mean, man,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if that went through like a focus group or something.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: You like carrots? Oh, I love carrots. As a matter
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of fact, researching this, I ate two raw carrots while
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I was reading. I eat raw carrots all the time,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: like with the skins on and everything. Oh. You don't
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: even do a little peel huh, No, just wash them up.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you should watch them, you know, they come out
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of the dirt. I know. But so I've read, and
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I think we talked about there's this idea that vegetarians
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: don't get some sort of um like beneficial bacteria because
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the vegetables are so well rinsed and washed in the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: United States and there's some something in the dirt that
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: is helpful. But I mean, yeah, I mean when I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: wash my potatoes and carrots and stuff, I don't do
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: like the the brush scrub or anything like that. I
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: just give them a good sort of hand rense, Right,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So I'm sure I'm getting some some good dirt in there. Yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you want to make it. You want to get it
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: under your fingernails and then lick it out from under
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: your fingernails. That's the healthiest way. So we're talking about
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: carrots though, because the old adage that carrots are good
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: for your eyes. And here's the deal, and we'll talk
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: kind of all about this. Carrots are good for your eyes,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: but um, they're not like a cure if you have
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: anything other than a vitamin AID deficiency, which is why
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: your eyes may be going bad. Right, And even if
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you already have like a problem from vitamin A deficiency,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily going to reverse the issue. But from
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: what I can tell, carrots are a really good preventative
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: or um Vitamin A deficiency related eye issues. Um. And
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about how that works in a second. But first, Chuck,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you when I was younger, Um,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: we used to have a great neighborhood for playing things
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: like kick the can, And I remember specifically explaining to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: some of my friends that I was playing with that
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I was able to see them so clearly at night
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: because I ate a bunch of carrots, like I've always
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: eaten carrots. And I meant that as sincerely as I've
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: ever said anything in my life. And I just yesterday
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: figured out that I was totally full of it and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: didn't realize it. And when one of the other boys
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: shoved you, you said that your dad was going to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: sue their family for all the money they had. Yeah.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever said that, my I thankfully,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I always was like, that's that's lame. Yeah, yeah, you're
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you're the only eight year old going, well, that's called
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a frivolous lawsuit, my friend to reform now, So yeah,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you might have been Uh, that might have been a
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: carryover for you from this story from World War Two
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: in the UK. Apparently the British Royal Air Force had
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a story they published about the fighter pilot John Cat's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Eye Cunningham, who they could thank for his diet of carrots,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: for the fact that he was so good at night
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and these dog fights that he would get into at night,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and so people drank it up. They grew carrots, And
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it turns out It was all sort of a false story,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: cooked up for propaganda sake to cover up their radar technology. Yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: they didn't want everybody to know that they were using radar,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: so they said, there's this guy who's eating so many
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: carrots that he can see German bombers at night. You
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: know what they really said? What they said, hay, old boy,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: what do you think about just dangling you as the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: old carrot as it were? Oh? Man, that was that
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: was good. Yeah. I think we should also specify his
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: nickname wasn't cats size, it was cat's eyes. He wasn't
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: like the size of a cat. Mm hmm yeah, c
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: A T s apostrophe e y e, not c A
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: T s i z e, because that's what it sounded
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: like at first. I got you cat size, cat size.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: He's the cutest darn little slying pilot. Oh no, boy,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: that's good. Um, So that's totally made up. It's British propaganda. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And you don't actually see better in the dark from
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: eating carrots. They were just covering up radar ues. That's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: one of the best things I've ever learned in my
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: entire life. I love that. In fact, that's just wonderful.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: But it does not mean that carrots aren't good for
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: your eyes. And we're going to describe how carrots are
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: good for your eyes after a break about that, Chuck,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: it sounds great much much as sky should know. Okay, boy,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: that was a great first half if you asked me, Chuck. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and you know what, I want to applaud you for
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: not eating baby carrots. Well there I hear. They're bleached.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: They're bleached, and they're also I think the story is
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: it's a very wasteful thing, right the process. Oh, I
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: don't know, is it. I mean I think so you
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: can just look at a baby carrot and where does
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the rest of the stuff go. I thought that they
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: were made from carrots that didn't pass mustard to be
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: sold um normally, and then they just kind of whittled
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it down. But yeah, I guess that that would be
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a waste because most of the carrot that wouldn't most
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of the produce that doesn't get sold is it's just cosmetic.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I think we talked about food waste before like that,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: didn't we. Yeah, and you know what, I tried to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: buy one of those the other day. The grocer was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: laying out lemons and he had one that didn't look good.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: He said it to the side, and I said, kind
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of have that one and he said no, He said,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: but it looks just like a Blincoln because I know
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna sell it on eBay. Alright, so I'm gonna
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: take issue with that guy. And we should do a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: short stuff on what's the deal with baby carrots once
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: we figure that out too, all right, for sure, for sure.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't eat baby carrots because I have
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: heard the bleach. Although I must admit I've never done
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the actual research. It was enough of it. Yeah, that's true.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I like man size stuff, so, uh, Beta carroteen is
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  Speaker 1: sort of the big ingredient that is the pigment, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: not just in carrots, but in a lot of things
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: like sweet potatoes, a lot of orange things. I think
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: it'sn't one of the melons rich with beta karantine canna loope.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of that one. That's funny, you're kidding, right, yeah, okay,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but it could have been one of those things that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you've never seen written out before, you know, like like fatricious.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I don't even know how to spell that F A
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: C E T I O U S it looks like
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: fastidious or something. Yeah, fascetious or something, or what's the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: one he used to get wrong all the time? Oh
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: delete de so. Beta carotene is this pigment. It's in
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of orange fruits and veggies, and it is
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: rich with vitamin A. And we've already discussed vitamin A
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: is in in the developing world, vitamin A. If you
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: don't have enough of it, it is a leading cause
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of blindness. Um. There are some other conditions that a
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: lack of vitamin A can cause with the eyes, one
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  Speaker 1: called zero thalamia, where you don't produce tears. You have
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of dryness. Obviously, your eyelids can swell. Uh,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and you can get ulcers in your cornea. It sounds awful,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: it does, uh. And then also macular degeneration UM, which
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: is a problem everywhere. It's like one of the main
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: causes people lose their vision as they age. But from
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: what I've read, that's not like it's not just a UM,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: a natural normal outcome of aging, Like you can prevent
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it in. One of the ways that you can prevent
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  Speaker 1: it or stave it off is from eating plenty of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: carrots or eating plenty plenty of foods that are rich
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: in beta carotene, because I don't think we've said it yet.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Beta caroteen is a precursor to vitamin A. We eat
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: things like that, like carrots that contain beta carotene, and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: our bodies go boop boop, poop, poop poop and turn
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: it into vitamin a and go here you go. Here's
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: use some of this and your eyes pack it in
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the macula and it fortifies it against macular degeneration. That's right.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And we mentioned sweet potatoes in the cantilupe. But also
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: of course mango. You got your pumpkin, you got your apricot.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Kind of most of those orange colored foods except for oranges. Oranges, yeah,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: they don't have beta guarantine. I don't think that is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just stupid. I know, what do you do in orange? Um?
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Some milk apparently has it, so a lot of cheeses
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: have it, egg yolks um have it. Liver has it.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Liver has everything, I think, because it's just everything gets
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: stuck in the liver, so you're you're ingesting everything. Right then,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not a big liver fan either, although I do
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: love it. I love a good patty, but like, I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: wouldn't eat like just a grilled liver or something like that.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: It'd fall through the grates, I think on a grill,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it. Yeah, I mean that's that's where I go
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: south with with any like survival competition. I love those shows,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: but I don't know, man. I mean maybe if it
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was life and death, I could bring myself to it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But eating in trails and livers and brains and stuff
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: just very very tough for me. Not a sweetbread fan,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: huh new. And that's a terrible name for that stuff.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It is. There's a you know, there's that footnote in
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: our book about sweetbreads being like the greatest culinary euphemism
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of all time because those things are not. That's that's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: just about as great as it comes for that kind
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: of thing. Because you talk calamus or something, or the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: thyroid gland. Yeah, and the pancreas. I think I think
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you're referring to our book that you can pre order now, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know Colon an incomplete compendium of mostly
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: interesting things which can be pre ordered everywhere in the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: world right now. Yeah, I read those footnotes. There are
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun So where are we are. We
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: are basically at the point where I think we kind
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of wrap this up, chuck, because we've we've talked about
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: beta caroten being important, We've talked about UM vitamin A,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and then I guess we should also mention lutine loutins
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and antioxidant that's also found in carrots, which makes carrots
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: even even more potent health wise. UM that really kind
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of helped them prevent macular degeneration too. Yeah, I think
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: they increase your pigment density, and the macula is where
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: that happens. In the macula you always hear about macular degeneration,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: but that's the little oval yellow area near the retina. Yes,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and when that goes you can't see so well, so
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you want to keep that healthy. So basically, I think
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: what we're trying to say is go out preorder our
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: book and then while you do, eat some raw carrots,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: but not the baby kind. Yeah, eat raw carrots, and
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: then if you want more lutine, you can also eat
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: dark leafy greens and kale and Swiss shard and stuff
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: like that. And don't forget our book. And since I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: said that, choke, I think short stuff is out, don't
• 12:04
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• 12:10
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