You’ve heard of health food, but have you heard of eye health food? An essential part of eye care is eating the right foods that contain the right vitamins and minerals to help keep the eyes health and clear vision. There are a lot of eye diseases and eating the proper foods can lower the risk of these diseases.

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.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is another antioxidant that also helps reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the forming of cataracts.

• Citrus fruits
• Papaya
• Strawberries
• Broccoli
• Sweet Potato

Vitamin E

Vitamin E has been associated with the prevention of cataracts and the delaying of cataract growth.

• Wheat Germ, Safflower, Corn, Soybean Oil
• Almonds
• Mixed Nuts
• Kiwi

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is essential to proper functioning of the retina. It also helps prevent night blindness by helping the eye to adapt between bright light and darkness. Vitamin A also helps reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the forming of cataracts. With AMD and cataracts being the leading causes of visual impairment and with the number of people to be affected increasing, getting a good amount of Vitamin A is essential to the eye’s health and beauty.

• Beef and Chicken Liver
• Eggs
• Milk
• Cheese
• Carrot
• Spinach
• Mango
• Cantaloupe
• Kale
• Apricots
• Tomatos
• Sweet Pepper
• Peas
• Peach

Selenium and Zinc are two key minerals that help the oxidation process. They help the body absorb antioxidants and getting daily values of these minerals help antioxidants in the prevention of eye diseases.

Selenium

• Tuna
• Cod
• Noodles
• Bread
• Rice

Zinc helps the functioning of enzymes responsible for eye health. In people with macular degeneration (AMD), levels of zinc in the retina can be very low, so eating zinc-rich foods is a logical first step for preventing AMD

• Oysters
• Ready-to-Eat (RTE) Breakfast cerea
• Beef
• Pork
• Yogurt
• Cashews
• Pecans
• Raisin bran

Another interesting research finding was that tea – green or black – reduced glucose levels in diabetic rats, and the tea-drinking rats had fewer cataracts than their “non tea-drinking” counterparts!