The prerequisite for vision health
is vision nutrition, which builds healthy eye muscles, nerves, and blood
vessels—the components of healthy eyes and perfect vision.
Self-healing is your own personal
responsibility, just as Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once said:
"Your food should be your medicine, and your medicine should be your
food." Make food your medicine. Heal your eye problems and improve your
vision with diet and nutrition. Vision nutrition is your best preventive medicine
against any chronic eye problem.
It can prevent any eye disorder.
It can reverse any disorder you may already have
developed.
It can preserve and protect your remaining vision for the
rest of your life.
Vision nutrition is your resource in self-healing. Prevention is always
better than cure.
Antioxidants to Fight Free Radicals
Vision nutrition is the most
powerful weapon against free radicals, which are involved in the development of
virtually all eye disorders, including cataracts, retinal disease, macular
degeneration, and glaucoma, in the cellular level.
Free Radicals Damage Your Vision
Antioxidants are powerful
scavengers of free radicals in your body. They are substances in foods that
disarm free radicals. Antioxidants include beta-carotene, coenzyme Q10, and
vitamins A, C, and E.
The fluid that fills the front of
your eye (known as aqueous) has one of the highest levels of vitamin C
in your body. The retina at the back of your eye requires a good supply of
antioxidant nutrients from your bloodstream.
Unfortunately, as you continue to
age, your body produces fewer anti-oxidants, resulting in less protection of
your eyes from oxidation.
In addition, the strong UV rays
from the sun can burn or “oxidize” the retinal cells at the back you eyes,
leading to loss of central vision. But lack of sunlight over many years can
also destroy your retinal cells.
Foods to Fight Free Radicals
Foods that are rich in antioxidants are scavengers of free radicals.
Chlorella is an alga containing high levels of chlorophyll (the green substance in
plants). It is one of the purest and most potent foods on earth. Chlorella is a
powerful detoxification agent against heavy metals and chemicals in your body.
It not only breaks down persistent hydrocarbon and metallic toxins, such as
mercury, cadmium, lead, DDT, and PCE, that you may have ingested in your body,
but also strengthens your immune system.
Eat several raw
garlic cloves a day to fight free radicals. Overcome the odor by chewing
some fresh parsley.
A standard dosage of garlic is 900 mg daily of a garlic extract standardized
to contain 1.3 percent alliin, the potent ingredient in garlic.
Eat anti-aging foods high in vitamin C and bioflavonoids, such as apricots, berries, black currants, cherries,
grapes, grapefruit, lemons, and plums, to prevent broken blood vessels and new
blood vessel growth in the eye.
Vitamin C does not stay in your body for long, so you need to replenish it
constantly in order to reap its benefits.
Load up on carrots for vitamin A. Carrots contain a carotenoid (a pigment in
plants and animals that provides red and yellow color) called beta-carotene.
Your body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, which is a potent anti-oxidant
for eye health and healthy vision. Eat carrots, and you will have eyes of an
eagle.
Protect the interior of your eyes from the sun
with lutein (the primary
carotenoid located in the center of the retina, called the macula) and
zeaxanthin through supplements, or foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin such as
collard greens, Brussels sprouts, kale, green peas, pumpkin seeds, corn, green
pepper, and spinach.
Cigarette smoking reduces the
eye’s production of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are pigments of the retina for
filtering out harmful blue rays that thicken the macular pigment.
One cup of raw spinach
contains about 18 mg. of lutein, one cup of cooked broccoli contains about 3
mg., and one cup of sliced green pepper around 1 mg. They are all anti-aging
foods for vision health.
According to The Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 5 servings of spinach per week
may reduce macular degeneration by more than 50 percent.
Take magnesium
to aid blood flow to the eye for oxygen and nutrients.
Consume cold-water fish and fish oils for omega-3 essential oils, as well as
vitamins A and D, which aid in the production of protective pigments in the
eye. Eating tuna may significantly reduce your dry
eye symptoms.
Take zinc
to help release vitamin A from your liver to help healthy vision.
Improve your night vision with bilberries, a cousin to blueberries,
grown in the forest meadows of Europe, western Asia, and the northern Rocky Mountains . Bilberry is an herbal remedy that may
have a very positive impact on night vision by fortifying blood vessel walls,
thereby improving blood flow to the blood vessels in your eyes. Bilberry may
help prevent macular degeneration and cataracts. Its original use traces back
to World War II when British pilots found that eating jam made from bilberries
helped them improve their night vision.
Eat more protein
(plant protein from beans) to reduce the development of cataracts, which make
your eye’s natural lens cloudy, according to a French scientific study.
Supplement your diet with vitamin E from nuts to improve your healthy vision.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
