Want Healthy Eyes? Include These 14 Foods in Your Diet
14 foods you must include in your diet for healthy eyes.
Don’t just think taste, think eyes too. Eventually the health of your eyes is dependent on what is on your plate. No it’s not just carrots we are talking about. Bugs Bunny may have made them popular, but it is Popeye who wins the contest when it comes to eating spinach and eye health.
Below is the list of eye healthy foods that must be made a regular part of your diet.
Almonds
Vitamin E can help slow age-related macular degeneration (AMD) from getting worse. It can also help prevent formation of cataract. Almond is a good source of vitamin E.
Cashew Nuts
Cashews contain a powerful antioxidant pigment called Zeaxanthin, which forms a protective layer over our retina and saves it from the harmful effects of ultra violet rays. It also helps prevent age related macular degeneration and keeps our eyes healthy.
Ghee
Ghee is actually a great source of healthy fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K, that our body needs a supply of regularly. Vitamin A in it is essential to keep our eyesight sharp and skin moist and smiling with health.
Dairy
Dairy products such as milk and yogurt (specially from grass fed cows) is good for the eyes. They contain vitamin A as well as the mineral zinc. Vitamin A protects the cornea while zinc helps bring that vitamin to the eyes from the liver.
Broccoli
There is clear evidence now that foods rich in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin can help reduce the risk of inflammation of the eyes substantially. And broccoli is loaded with these. (So are spinach, kale, kiwi and corn). And basil leaves also give us both these antioxidants, so chew some everyday.
Egg Yolk
This yellow goodness is packed not just with lutein but also with other sight friendly nutrients like omega 3, zinc and vitamin E.
Indian Gooseberry (Amla)
Amla is loaded with C which helps improve the health of our eye tissue. As a bonus C also helps regenerate another important eye friendly antioxidant-vitamin E.
Jackfruit
Abundant A (and some flavonoid pigments like xanthin, lutein) in it helps maintain sharp eyes (and smooth skin). These keep vision-related problems like macular degeneration and night blindness away.
Makhanas
There are some reports where vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency has been linked to vision trouble, so incorporating B1 rich makhanas in our diet may be your answer for a super sharp vision too.
Oranges
Oranges and other citrus fruit contain vitamin C, which is key for eye health. It keeps our blood vessels in the eyes healthy and can combat the development of cataracts, and age-related macular degeneration.
Papaya
Carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin in papaya provide protection to the retina of the eye. The beta carotene in that gives papaya its orange colour, and gets converted into the eye friendly vitamin A in the body, and is known to be effective in reducing the effect of macular degeneration.
Salmon
Lower inflammation rates of the eye are linked to higher circulating blood levels of EPA and DHA — essential omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and other fatty fish. Salmon also provides another antioxidant astaxanthin, which also provides protection against blindness.
Turmeric
Curcumin in this yellow wonder can protect our retina from free radicals that spur macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of vision loss.
Wheat Germ
They are loaded with the difficult to find zinc that enables vitamin A to create a pigment called melanin, which protects the eye.
(The writer is a nutritionist, weight management consultant and health writer based in Delhi. She is the author of Don't Diet! 50 Habits of Thin People (Jaico) and Ultimate Grandmother Hacks: 50 Kickass Traditional Habits for a Fitter You (Rupa).)
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