
Why are carrots orange? It is political - Alex3917
http://www.nextnature.net/2009/08/why-are-carrots-orange-it-is-political/
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df07
The article linked as the source
(<http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history5.html>) actually says that the William
of Orange story is probably apocryphal:

 _"Though the stabilised orange carrot does date from around seventeenth
century Netherlands, it is unlikely that honouring William of Orange had
anything to do with it"_

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Groxx
We've started getting yellow carrots in the Woodmans nearby. They're very
clearly targeted because of their non-orange color, but they're quite good
(partly because the brand carries good carrots, but these are a little
sweeter).

People + Food + Color = weird.

~~~
Willie_Dynamite
Some foodstuffs company whose name I've forgotten tried to introduce yellow
ketchup in my area a couple of years ago, but they failed pretty badly. I
bought a bottle, and while it tasted just like the the red stuff, it just
didn't look right. My 5 year old niece just flat out refused to eat it.

~~~
Groxx
Yeah, and remember the green (and purple) Heinz sales? They didn't last long.

At the cost of duplicating my other comment, it fits here perfectly:

I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture
in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers.
When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

~~~
jerf
"I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture
in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers."

I tend to consider conspiracy theories a last resort. It is not that they are
never true, just that reaching for them first is a mental crutch. In this
case, I would suggest that given the importance of food, one would rather
expect evolutionary considerations to dominate how we feel about food
colorations. It may be true that making food "look good" can be used to hide
flaws, but I seriously doubt the concept of "looking good" comes from
_training_. I would imagine it mostly comes from genes and common-sense-type-
training.

(I assert this without proof, which is why I mentioned my conspiracy-theory
metric. My point is that I don't see a need for the conspiracy theory choice
here.)

~~~
Groxx
Yeah, I generally agree. And the evolutionary standpoint makes sense, and is
the logical counter to this. My main focus there isn't that we equate the two,
it's that there's such a _strong_ connection. At least, as far as I can see.
It could've grown from "that sells better, what if we do this", but it's still
kinda strange, and I wonder if it's at least partly intentional.

'Tis just speculation, though. There are plenty of weird / weirder things in
the world.

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dons
I've had "heirloom" carrots a few times in Portland, OR. White and red ones,
and all sorts of funky shapes. So they're coming back, the way heirloom
varieties of other commoditized vegetables and fruits have (tomatoes, peppers,
apples, berries, wild greens ...)

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jrockway
Isn't beta carotene orange, and perhaps orange carrots are most popular
because of this nutritional value?

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noodle
i enjoyed this comment about the story on reddit:

 _Thoughts from a chemist here.

Orange carrots express beta carotene, purple carrots express anthocyanins, red
carrots express lycopene in addition to some alpha- and beta-carotenes, and
white carrots express few or no pigments.

I believe one way to produce an orange carrot from the conventional
horticulture of purple, red, and white carrots, is to supress lycopene
production in red carrots, leaving just carotene. Another way would be to take
a faint orange (perhaps technically white) carrot and cause it to express
those orange pigments at the high levels that purple carrots do._

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dugmartin
We grow white carrots in our garden. They have a much smoother and much less
earthy taste when raw. My kids love them pulled right out of the ground and
washed off with the hose.

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jeromec
Maybe it's just because I'm indoctrinated, but the orange carrots in the
picture are the only ones that look tasty.

~~~
johnfn
It's probably indoctrination. After all, what other orange foods do we eat?
(except peppers, I guess)

~~~
idlewords
Oranges, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, squash, apricots, mango, peaches, papaya,
pumpkin, and Kraft macaroni & cheese.

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mcantor
The carrot is a lie?!

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JoeAltmaier
And lets not get started on bananas...

