Marty Ottenheimer pointed out to me the other day that Carrots do not actually help vision. Rather, the story we often hear is a result of a rumor from WWII. ABC Science explains:
…if you don’t get enough carotenes or Vitamin A in your diet, eventually you will suffer problems in your vision. This was the basis of the myth started by the Royal Air Force, the RAF.
In the Battle of Britain, in 1940, the British fighter pilot, John Cunningham, became the first person to shoot down an enemy plane with the help of radar. In fact, in WW II, he was the RAF’s top-scoring night fighter pilot, with a total of 20 kills. Some pilots were better flying in daylight, while others, like Cunningham, were better at night. His nickname was “Cats’ Eyes”. The RAF put out the story in the British newspapers that he, and his fellow night pilots, owed their exceptional night vision to carrots. People believed this to the extent that they started growing and eating more carrots, so that they could better navigate at night during the blackouts that were compulsory during WW II.
But this story was a myth invented by the RAF to hide their use of radar, which was what really located the Luftwaffe bombers at night – not human carrot-assisted super-vision.
The punch-line is that German folklore already held that carrots would make eyes better. Susceptibility to fraud is usually rooted in pre-existing beliefs and prejudice.
The NYTimes.com Well Blog suggests clinical studies are unable to find benefits among vitamin supplement-takers:
Despite a lack of evidence that vitamins actually work, consumers appear largely unwilling to give them up. Many readers of the Well blog say the problem is not the vitamin but poorly designed studies that use the wrong type of vitamin, setting the vitamin up to fail. Industry groups such as the Council for Responsible Nutrition also say the research isn’t well designed to detect benefits in healthy vitamin users.
I like the “despite the lack of evidence” line, as if the evidence is conclusive or at least compelling when shown to the consumer.
I just ate some Kartoffelpuffer, also known as latkes, or draniki, or even Placki kartoflane (Platski). Fried food is not my favorite, but I have to admit there is something deeply comforting about hot potato pancakes. Perhaps it is the habit of eating them with family and friends, or the time of year when they are most often served. Speaking of things that have strange translations in other languages, I recently noticed that the Polish word for laxative is Srodek przeczyszczajacy. Perhaps the theory is that if you can say it clearly then you don’t need it. Not sure how that came to mind…oh, right I was talking about latkes.
There seems to be an abundance of thinking about latkes in the world. I have noticed some argue potatoes are only a recent development — a New World ingredient. This suggests latkes as a concept much broader than the potato pancake. Yet I know of no modern latke without potatoes. You? Moreover, this same article argues that Holofernes, a general of Nebuchadnezzar, was beheaded by Judith after a meal of latkes. Really? A general was put to sleep by latkes? I think the regular story of a general who drank too much and let his guard down is more likely. It is not just history that comes up in the latke texts. I also found philosophy. The famous debates have seen latkes used as a vehicle of metaphysics:
Whatever there are, some of them are latkes. (Free metaphysics.)
In every possible world there is a latke, though perhaps not the same latke. (Modal semantics.)
Necessarily, there is an x such that x is the square root of 2, and there is another x which is a latke. (Technical modal mathematical logic.)
All this thinking about potato pancakes is interesting, but to be honest I really just like to eat them. Nothing like a good Kartoffelpuffer with a seasonal Bock — Weihenstephaner Korbinian to go with wild-boar sausage and a side of sauerkraut, Spätzle and of course potato pancakes…yum.
According to Greek mythology, Hades, ruler of the Underworld, fell in love with the nymph Menthe. Persephone, Hades’s wife, became wildly jealous and began to trample Menthe. Hades rushed forward and transformed Menthe into a shrub to keep her near him always. Persephone was appeased, thinking that Menthe would be trampled for eternity beneath the feet of passersby, but Hades gave Menthe a wonderfully sweet fragrance he could cherish each time he passed by.
Him and everyone else. It seems Hades was satisfied even though others trampled on his love as he could still cherish her through smell.