There are a lot of eye diseases and eating the right foods is essential to healthy eyes. The antioxidants and minerals can help keep our eyes stay healthy.Antioxidants help prevent many diseases affecting not only the heart, immune system, cancer but also the eyes. Antioxidants include Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and Vitamin A. These antioxidants can help prevent age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, and other eye diseases. Good sources of antioxidants are found in fruits and vegetables, with the highly pigmented ones having a higher concentration.
First of all, you have to eat enough Vitamin A. Vitamin A can be found in vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and spinach.Vitamin A deficiency is one of the major causes of childhood blindness in developing nations. Vitamin A plays a crucial role in night-vision as it helps the eyes to adapt to varying lighting conditions. Lack of this vitamin can result in night-blindness, dry eyes, superficial scars, corneal ulcers and spots on the white portion of the eye. Vitamin A supplements should be taken only under a physician’s supervision as an overdose of the same can do more harm than good.
Vitamin C reduces the risk of many diseases and it is no surprise that it is essential to keeping the eyes healthy. Vitamin C is another antioxidant that also helps reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the forming of cataracts. Vitamin C, as we all know, cannot only be found in citrus fruits and of course orange juice, but also green peppers, strawberries, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
Vitamin E is one of the most potent anti-oxidant for the eyes. It delays the formation of cataracts and also acts as an effective anti-carcinogen. The best sources of Vitamin E are nuts, green leafy vegetables,cod-liver oil and fortified products such as cereal.
Minerals like Zinc, selenium, magnesium and copper are also needed in trace quantities to maintain optimum eye-health and vision.. Zinc can be found in cheese, yogurt, red meat, pork, and certain fortified cereals. Selenium can be found in walnuts, enriched breads and rice, and macaroni and cheese. As with antioxidants, getting too much of these minerals can cause problems.
So, if you want healthy eyes,a simple rule of thumb to keep in mind is to try eating a rainbow of colorful foods (naturally).
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