More than 200 million people worldwide struggle with mild to severe vision problems. The health of your eyes heavily depends on your heart and blood vessels. If they aren’t up to par, then your eye health will suffer.
Your diet can significantly affect the health of your eyes. If you don’t eat enough nutritious foods, then you’re at a higher risk of vision damage than normal. To support optimum vision health, you shouldn’t have a high-fat diet. In fact, to ensure a healthy and long life, you should be careful with your diet and eat healthier foods. A healthy body needs healthy food to develop and maintain itself properly.
What You Shouldn’t Eat
If you strive for a healthy lifestyle or are a fitness enthusiast, you may already know a few examples. However, you need to remember the negative impact of a bad diet on your body. You can prevent many serious health issues by avoiding certain foods.
- Soda
Study shows if your soda intake on average is four to five cans a week, you are at a higher risk of developing a retinal disease called Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (PDR).
- Processed Meat
Processed meat includes bacon, hot dogs, steak, etc. Most of these types of foods contain very high sodium (salt), which can cause high blood pressure (hypertension). It can also cause hypertensive retinopathy, neuropathy, and choroidopathy.
- Greasy Foods
If you wish to focus on your health as a whole, you should avoid greasy foods. Fried foods can raise cholesterol levels, increase risk of stroke, hypertension, heart attack, etc. Deep-fried foods are also known to release free radicals that damage and kill healthy cells. Therefore, eating greasy foods can lead to numerous eye problems including diabetic retinopathy.
What You Should Eat
If you consistently eat healthy foods your physical health will drastically improve, especially your eyes. Some foods that contribute to better eye health include:
- Red Peppers
Research shows that red peppers hold many eye-friendly nutrients, and provides the body with you vitamin C, A, and E. When you eat them frequently, your chances of getting cataracts reduce. The spice in these peppers will break down Vitamin C, so you can eat them raw if you want.
- Eat Your Greens
You should finish all the greens on your plate, since they significantly improve your health. These green vegetables, such as spinach, watercress, and others, can improve your eye health significantly. If you regularly eat your greens, you can alleviate eye pressure, and your risk of developing health problems decreases.
- Nuts, Seeds, Etc.
Sunflower seeds, peanuts, and other non-meat sources of protein are very helpful to your eye’s health. Almonds also have great nutritional properties, which contribute to a healthy diet. These contain Vitamin E, which can help slow and prevent Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
Conclusion
Taking care of what you eat can significantly improve your eye health. Proper nutrition is an essential step in keeping your eyes healthy.
