Yellow and green vegetables can guard against blindness
(dailymail.co.uk)
Updated: 2006-08-21 16:35
 |
Large Medium Small |
Children have long been told that eating carrots will improve their vision.
Now it seems peas, sweetcorn and broccoli may also be good for the eyesight.
Scientists have found brightly coloured yellow and green vegetables contain chemicals that can help protect the eyes against damage that occurs in later life.
Women under 75 who ate lots of vegetables such as peas, broccoli, squash and sweetcorn had lower rates of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
It is thought the compounds may help reduce the risk of AMD by absorbing blue light that could damage the area at the back of the retina.
It also may help prevent the condition by strengthening eye membranes and mopping up molecules that can harm cells, say scientists.
AMD affects two million Britons and is the leading cause of blindness among people over 50.
The macula is found at the centre of the retina, where incoming rays of light are focused, and is responsible for frontal vision, close up vision and colour.
AMD occurs when the macula's cells become damaged and stop working. There is currently no cure and only limited options to try to slow down its progression.
Diets
The new study looked at the diets of 1700 American women aged between 50 and 79 to see if diet affected their chances of developing the eye condition.
Each woman was asked to provide details about what she typically ate some 15 years earlier.
The team from the University of Wisconsin also performed blood tests to detect levels of carotenoids - a group of substances that give fruit and vegetables their colour - in their current diet.
In particular they were looking for two carotenoids called lutein and zeaxanthin which have previously been linked to the AMD.
They found women under 75 were less likely to develop the condition if over the 15 years they consistently ate lots of vegetables rich in carotenoids - such as leafy green vegetables, sweetcorn, squash, broccoli and peas.
Lead researcher Dr Suzen Moeller said: "This exploratory observation is consistent with a broad body of evidence from the observational and experimental studies that suggest that these carotenoids may protects against AMD.'
However when they included women between 75 and 79 in their analysis the effect disappeared.
The team said this may be because women who survived beyond 75 perhaps were those who ate the most fruit and vegetables and so effectively there was no comparison group within this age range.
Equally it may be that other as-yet-unidentified nutrients play a role in preventing AMD and so affected the results in the older women.
However the scientists, writing in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology also said their results could simply be due to chance.
They therefore called for more long-term prospective studies and clinical trials to be conducted to confirm their findings.
The idea that carrots may boost your eyesight has often been dismissed as just another old wives' tale.
But experts say it may have some foundation in truth as carotene converts to vitamin A which along with other nutrients is vital for healthy eyes.