Are you eating a healthy diet?
Eye health experts are warning that poor diets and unhealthy lifestyles are fuelling a decline in the nation's eyesight.
The revelation marked National Eye Health Week, and came after a Department of Healthsurvey revealed just a quarter of adults in England eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Essential vitamins and nutrients found in fruits, vegetables and other wholesome foods are vital to protect against macular degeneration – the UK’s leading cause of blindness – as well as other common eye diseases.
Dr John Nolan, the Principle Investigator of the Macular Pigment Research Group at the Waterford Institute of Technology explains: "Dietary nutrients such as lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin are crucial for the formation of yellow pigment that protects the macula by absorbing omnipresent blue light emitted by the sun, car headlights, TVs, computer screens and the like. By absorbing this damaging blue light you effectively reduce the risk of suffering age-related macular degeneration (AMD)."
Green leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale and orange fruits including peaches, oranges, papaya and apricots are all rich sources of lutein and zeaxanthin whilst meso-zeaxanthin can be found in salmon, trout and shrimps, all be it in small amounts.
The density of this sight preserving yellow pigment can also be affected by your age, genetics and other lifestyle factors such as smoking. So it is even more important to ensure that you get your five–a–day if you are aged 60 plus, have a family history of eye disease or are a smoker.
Smokers on 10 cigarettes-a-day have, on average, 25 per cent less pigment density than non-smokers thus allowing greater transmission of blue light and increasing your risk of AMD.
Francesca Marchetti, Chair of National Eye Health Week comments: “According to RNIB the number of people living with sight loss is predicted to double to four million by 2050. Yet, worryingly the Health Survey for England report shows consumption of fruits and vegetables has actually fallen over the last few years.
“Eating a healthy diet full of eye-friendly nutrients is a simple step that we can all take to help protect against blindness and sight loss.”
Anyone who struggles to eat a balanced diet may find supplements beneficial for keeping their eyes and vision healthy. This is can be especially important for meso-zeaxanthin, given it is not consumed in high amounts as part of a normal diet, and 12 per cent of people lack this key nutrient.
For more advice on how a healthy diet can help keep your eyes healthy and minimise your risk of sight loss visit the National Eye Health Week website http://www.visionmatters.org.uk.
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