Cataract food

Just think about how often you use vision-related language in day to day communications. Today you will probably use one or more expression like, “I see what you mean”, “Things are looking good”, “We see eye to eye on this”, “He has a clear vision for his business”, and the list could go on. All of this is a linguistic nod to the centrality of your eyes to how you perceive and interact with the world. Right now you are reading this using your eyes but what if those eyes start to fail you? It is not just short-sightedness or far-sightedness that may impact you either. Cataracts develop as a common part of the aging process, in fact the prevalence of cataracts rises from about 2.5 per cent for people in their 40s to 99 per cent of people in their 90s. However, this does not mean that cataracts are a “normal” part of ageing in fact a new study has shown that your food choices play a large role in whether you will develop cataracts or not.

Cataracts are cloudy areas in the lens inside the eye, which is normally clear. Cataracts can develop in one or both eyes although if they develop in both eyes, one will be more severely affected than the other. A normally clear lens allows light to pass through to the back of the eye, so that you can see well-defined images. If a part of the lens becomes opaque light does not pass through easily and the patient\’s vision becomes blurry like looking through cloudy water or a fogged-up window. The more cloudy the lens becomes, the worse vision will be.

In the new study more than 30,000 Swedish women over the age of 49 were followed for seven years. In that time the women were given detailed dietary questionnaires and were watched for signs of developing cataracts. A point of difference in this study was that instead of just looking at antioxidant ingredients in food like vitamins C or E and flavonoids like lycopene, used a measure of total antioxidant content in foods that took into account any synergy between antioxidant ingredients.

The results showed that women with the highest total antioxidant score for their diet were 13 per cent less likely to develop cataracts than women who consumed the least.

So what does that mean for a cataract protective diet? It means lots of purple, red and yellow fruits and vegetables. It also means lots of whole grains, tea, coffee, and of course red wine, although not too much of the red wine or you might find yourself another type of “blind”.