Argument Of The Day,

back in the 16th century did Dutch growers really change the colour of carrots to honour the House of Orange?

purple and white carrots at Borough Market, before then carrots were in fact purple, where they were grown by the Persians, but when the carrot arrived in Europe allegedly the Dutch wanted to develop a better tasting carrot, and at the time the ruling house was the House of Orange, so why not try for a orange carrot? as it happens purple carrots contained less carotene and more anthocyanins, a group of antioxidants found in red, blue, and purple fruits and veggies, anthocyanins are also important for human health, but they have different nutritional qualities than carotene. The selective breeding of carrots reduced the quantity of anthocyanins in the purple carrots and increased the quantity of carotene, so it could be that there was no association between carrot grows and the House of Orange, but amongst scholars it can make a great argument! for the full article have a look here.