/oss/taxonomy/term/2628/all en /oss/article/food-health/second-generation-golden-rice <p>Eating carrots really can make you see better. That is, if you’re deficient in vitamin A! Retinol, as the vitamin is also known, is absorbed from the digestive tract and is converted in the body to retinal which complexes with a molecule in the eye known as opsin. When light hits this complex, it unleashes a cascade of chemical events that lead to the transmission of an impulse up the optic nerve. Given that vitamin A is found in meat and fish, a deficiency in North America is rare. But you don’t have to have meat.</p> Tue, 25 Dec 2012 03:21:43 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1846 at /oss