/oss/taxonomy/term/829/all en /oss/article/nutrition-you-asked/it-true-you-cannot-eat-polar-bear-liver <p>You could eat it. If you are lucky, you would live to regret it. That's because the liver could be lethal! You could overdose on retinol!</p> Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:51:30 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8892 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition-pseudoscience/baby-carrots-and-carrot-blush <p>Baby carrots are everywhere. Children and adults alike can be found munching on them. Even sports fans have found them to be a good dipping tool. As they should! Because carrots have no fat, they don’t need to be salted, and they’re loaded with beta carotene, a Vitamin A precursor.</p> Wed, 29 Jan 2020 20:18:19 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8093 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know-nutrition/real-connection-between-carrots-and-vision <p>During World War II, the British Royal Air Force started a rumour that carrots gave their fighter pilots sharp vision and accuracy. This was not true. Radar was responsible for their success against the Luftwaffe. But the British wanted to keep this a secret from their enemies. So naturally, they planted a false trail. Yes, it’s true that carrots are excellent source of beta-carotene, the body’s precursor for vitamin A, but studies have shown vision benefits will only be seen when there is a deficiency of vitamin A.</p> Fri, 29 Nov 2019 17:10:52 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8013 at /oss /oss/article/food-health-news-quirky-science/setting-facts-straight-about-iron-spinach <p>Mea culpa. I plead guilty to the crime I often accuse others of committing, namely not checking facts properly! Curiously, I would not have discovered my error had I not been doing some proper fact checking about claims that a nutritional supplement derived from the root of the maca plant can increase libido and alleviate menopausal problems.</p> Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:55:12 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2040 at /oss /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