This is why you were told carrots help you see in the dark

There’s a good chance your childhood was ruined by your parents’ incessant attempts to make you go to bed before the best TV programmes, do maths homework, and do your buttons up the right way.

But one of the most harrowing things was being forced to eat vegetables.

The biggest – and weirdly specific – lie we were told was that carrots would make us see in the dark.

But since there appears to be no parenting bible – where did this come from, and why does every parent say it?

Well, there is some shred of truth to the rumour, according to Smithsonian, who write that carrots are high in Vitamin A, which is good for eye health.

But the rumour of carrots helping you see in the dark was apparently spread by a British World War Two propaganda campaign.

The British government ordered blackouts in 1940, to make it more difficult for German planes to hit targets.

The Royal Air Force developed radar technology to help pinpoint enemy bombers, and it needed to keep the technology a secret.

So the UK’s Ministry of Information put their success down to carrots, according to John Stolarczyk, curator of the World Carrot Museum. (Yes, that’s a real thing.)

There were posters around saying eating carrots helped you to see in the blackouts.

And we really fell for it.

More: Everything you thought you knew about baby carrots was almost definitely a lie