Death by carrot juice

It was probably the enormous quantities of Vitamin A pills that Basil Brown was taking which actually killed him. Though the daily gallon of carrot juice certainly contributed.

More info: NY Times

Ottawa Citizen - Feb 15, 1974

Who We Are
Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 12, 2020
Category: Death | Vegetables | 1970s

Comments

Let's see. There are about 45,000 units of vitamin A in 8 oz. of carrot juice. A gallon a day would be 720,000 units. That's a lot less than the 7,000,000 units per day he popped in pill form, so Alex is right.

Posted by ges on 07/12/20 at 12:26 PM

I had read an article many years ago about some arctic explorers stranded, lost,etc., who ate their dogs to survive...including the dog liver. Turns out dog livers contain very large amounts of vitamin A which lead to problems, (death I think). I did just check to be sure I had correct information about the vitamin A levels in dog liver.

Posted by Steve E. on 07/12/20 at 04:17 PM

But his night vision was probably outtasite.

Posted by Phred22 on 07/12/20 at 06:52 PM

I always heard the danger in the arctic is polar bear livers.

Posted by Phideaux on 07/12/20 at 06:54 PM

From merckmanuals.com article on Vitamin A Toxicity: In adults, acute toxicity has occurred when arctic explorers ingested polar bear or seal livers, which contain several million units of vitamin A.

Posted by ges on 07/12/20 at 08:26 PM

"Ehh -- what's up, doc?"
"Your Vitamin A levels, you idiot!"

Posted by Chet on 07/24/20 at 10:16 AM

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.