How Does Eating Carrots Influence Night Vision?
Introduction
At only 52 calories per cup, the carrot is a healthy food staple full of the building blocks needed to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Carrots contain vitamin K, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B, and a host of other vitamins and nutrients, but it is vitamin A which is most associated with the upkeep of overall night vision.
Vitamin A
The typical one cup serving of carrots contains an impressive 686.3 percent of your daily needs for vitamin A. Vitamin A is an important nutrient needed to maintain the immune system and to keep skin young and healthy. It is also a vitamin that helps keep eyes and vision healthy. In carrots, vitamin A comes from the chemicals that give carrots their orange color, called carotenoids. Carotenoids are converted to vitamin A in the liver.
Process
Once a carrot has been ingested, the carotenoids from the vegetable are transported through the blood stream to the liver. In the liver these substances are used to create vitamin A. The vitamin A then re-enters the blood stream and flows towards the eyes where it enters the retina of your eye. Here it creates chemicals called retinal.
Sight
Once light passes through the retina, the retinal chemical changes shape. This change allows an electrical signal to be sent from the retina to the back of the brain where the visual centers are located. Here the the light is converted into an image. This image accounts for your vision. The less light that passes through the eyes, such as with your vision at night, the more important it is for there to be enough retinal to work correctly. Not getting enough vitamin A can prevent enough retinal from being produced, causing your night vision (as well as your day vision) to be affected.
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