You have probably heard the old saying, “Eat more carrots! It’s good for your eyes,” at least once. Is the saying just an old wife’s tale, or is the old adage true?
According to Nebraska Medicine ophthalmologist Chris Conrady, MD, Ph.D., “Carrots, or more specifically the vitamins within them, are essential for your eye health. Studies show five specific foods to help prevent clouding of the lens within the eye: glaucoma, dry eyes, and cataracts. They could also protect against macular degeneration, the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the elderly.
Eat more of these foods to maximize your eye health:
- Carrots — Carrots contain beta-carotene, which is used by the body to make vitamin A. Vitamin A is crucial to the health of your eyes. With insufficient quantities or without it, low vitamin A levels can lead to corneal scarring, dry eye, vision loss, and night blindness.
- Red peppers — Red and orange vegetables and fruits like oranges, strawberries, red peppers, kiwi, and broccoli contain vitamin C, an additional antioxidant, which could help prevent cataract development.
- Salmon — Fish, salmon, in particular, are packed with omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids help promote visual retina health and can help prevent dry eyes. Sardines, salmon, and herring have the most omega-3s, but halibut, tuna, and flounder are also good sources.
- Kale — Dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and kale are rich in antioxidants zeaxanthin and lutein, which are present in high concentrations in the retina. These antioxidants act as a filter, protecting the retina from damaging blue light.
- Oysters — Oysters are loaded with zinc, which could slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration. Zinc is also found in eggs, turkey, peanuts, and whole grains.
About 250 million people worldwide have mild to more severe vision loss. Were you aware that eye health is directly connected to blood vessels and the health of your heart? What you drink and eat can have lasting impacts on both your vision and cardiovascular health.
So, what are five foods to avoid to protect your eye health?
• Processed meats — Bacon, deli meats, and hot dogs are packed with sodium. The spike in salt can eventually lead to hypertension (high blood pressure). In your eyes, this could cause: Hypertensive retinopathy — blood vessel damage that causes vision loss or blurred vision; Neuropathy — a blood flow blockage that causes vision loss and kills nerves; Choroidopathy — a buildup of fluid beneath the retina. You should also limit your sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams or less daily.
• Pasta and Bread — Researchers have linked simple carbohydrates like those found in pasta and white bread with a greater chance of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss in older adults. What is the reason? Your body digests this type of carbohydrate quickly. This leads to a spike in blood sugar. Health experts recommend that to prevent this, you swap pasta and white bread for whole-grain proteins.
• Sugary Drinks — Sports and energy drinks, soda, lemonade, and other sweetened drinks are chock full of sugar — sometimes 7 to 20 teaspoons. They are also the U.S. diet’s leading source of added sugar and calories. All of that added sugar contributes to your odds of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This then can lead to related eye conditions like AMD and diabetic retinopathy. For the healthiest choice — choose water.
• Cooking Oils — A landmark study 30 years ago linked excessive consumption of linoleic acid, a type of unsaturated fat, with a greater chance of AMD. It can be found in these cooking oils: Sunflower, safflower, soybean, corn and sesame.
• Alcohol — While it isn’t a food, alcohol is something you put into your body that experts link to eye disease. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to cataracts at an earlier age, a common condition that causes your eye lens to become cloudy.
What are some other things you can do to protect your eyes?
• Quit smoking
Smoking increases your risk of diseases like dry eyes, macular degeneration, and cataracts, says Dr. Conrady. It also makes it more difficult to control and treat issues like inflammatory disorders of the eyes.
• Wear protective eyewear
Wear safety goggles or glasses when performing activities like trimming and mowing, metalwork, sawing, construction work, etc., where projectiles at a high velocity are possible and could severely damage the eye.
• Practice safe habits for wearing your contacts
Don’t wear your contacts past the recommended sleep periods with them at night if yours are designed for that. Please wash your hands before handling your contact lenses and disinfect and replace them frequently. Incorrect use could lead to corneal infections, which can lead to severe eye pain and loss of vision, and in extreme cases, loss of your eye altogether.
• Schedule regular eye exams
Regular eye exams should be scheduled every two to three years until age 40 and every two years between ages 40 and 60, followed by yearly after age 60 for otherwise healthy eyes.
“When it comes to our health, many of us tend to take our eyes for granted,” said Conrady. “Practicing good eye health and getting regular eye exams are essential for keeping our eyes healthy and preventing vision problems. Identifying problems as early as possible can help prevent or reduce vision loss.”
