Only slightly food related, but in the "You learn something new every
day (that you somehow have missed your entire life) category :

I am reading Michael Korda's excellent new book on the Battle of
Britain, _With_Wings_Like_Eagles_ and in the part where he's talking
about the Germans being able to do fairly precise night-time bombing
because of a radio-beam system they had developed, he mentions that
the only effective counter-tactic would be British night fighters
equipped with airborne interception radars. These were just being
developed and were of course a big secret.

He adds a footnote:

"The legend that eating raw carrots improves night vision came about
in part as a propaganda cover story invented to conceal the existence
of AI - a small radar set mounted in an aircraft. Raw carrots were
placed conspicuously on the table at every meal for night fighter
pilots, and the story about their effect on eyesight was skillfully
spread by the Ministry of Information - so skillfully that parents
today are still urging children to eat carrots. The famous night
fighter ace Squadron Leader John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham was said to
eat them in large quantities, but whether he did or not, the truth was
that even Cunningham never managed to achieve a single kill at night
until he began flying a twin-engine Beaufighter, with a radar operator
and a working AI set."

And it's true. See, for example,
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp

But I never knew that until today, and I'm Baby Boomer age. Hee.

--
Silvar Beitel