8 Foods For Eye Health ( eat for eyesight improvement)
To have bright and healthy eyes, in addition to following a healthy lifestyle, you also need to ensure you get enough nutrition in your daily meals.
Here are some good foods for eye health, which you should regularly include in your diet to improve vision and keep your eyes healthy:
1. Fish
Eating fish (especially salmon) has been proven to be very good for improving vision. Salmon and other types of fish like tuna, sardines, and mackerel provide omega-3 fatty acids. These fats help prevent dry eyes and ensure retinal health. Dry eyes are caused by insufficient tear production and lack of a tear film. It can also be caused by a deficiency in fatty acids like DHA and EPA. Fortunately, omega-3 significantly improves dry eyes by increasing tear production and its anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, you should include fish rich in omega-3 in your diet to protect and improve your vision.
2. Nuts
Nuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids and contain high levels of Vitamin E, which helps protect our eyes from age-related damage. Vitamin E fights oxidation throughout the body, including the eyes. It protects the eyes by neutralizing harmful free radicals that damage eye cells due to pollution, dust, and harmful rays. Therefore, adding nuts to your diet is a good way to protect your eyes.
3. Leafy Greens – one of the foods for eye health that you shouldn’t ignore
To improve vision, regularly eat spinach along with other leafy greens like kale. These are rich sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that protect the macula, the most sensitive part of the retina responsible for clear and sharp vision. Leafy greens that protect the eyes include spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuce. Vitamin A helps protect the cornea, lutein protects the eyes from ultraviolet light, and zeaxanthin contributes to vision development. The best way to consume spinach is to drink a cup of fresh spinach juice every morning before breakfast.
4. Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are one of the great foods for eye health that you shouldn’t ignore because they contain a lot of vitamin A, which helps improve vision and also prevents cataracts, macular degeneration, and glaucoma. Vitamin A also reduces dry eyes and protects the eyes from bacterial and viral infections. In fact, sweet potatoes contain more than 200% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin A. The amount of vitamin A in sweet potatoes is higher than in carrots.
5. Carrots
Carrots are rich in both Vitamin A and Beta Carotene. Vitamin A is a component of a protein that supports the retina and helps it absorb light. Vitamin A is also essential for keeping the eyes moist and preventing dry eyes. Additionally, carrots contain lutein, which helps increase pigment density in the retina (the oval-shaped yellow cell near the center of the retina). This helps protect the retina and reduce the risk of macular degeneration.
6. Eggs
Both egg yolks and egg whites are excellent choices, offering many benefits to the body. Zinc in egg whites helps the body utilize lutein and zeaxanthin found in egg yolks. The yellow-orange color of these compounds also blocks harmful blue light from damaging your retina. Eggs help increase the amount of protective pigment in the macula, the part that controls central vision.
7. Bell Peppers
All types of bell peppers, whether green, red, yellow, orange, even purple, brown, and black, are very good for eye health. Bell peppers are one of the richest sources of vitamins A and C. Vitamin A helps maintain vision, while vitamin C protects the eyes against cataracts. Bell peppers are also rich in vitamin B6, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-carotene, and lycopene. All these nutrients are essential for maintaining overall eye health.
8. Avocados
Avocado is also one of the foods for eye health. They contain lutein, which helps prevent macular degeneration, cataracts, and other age-related eye diseases. They also contain beta-carotene and vitamins B6, C, and E, which are necessary for good vision and to protect the eyes from oxidative damage that leads to vision loss.
In addition to a proper diet, you should also have a reasonable work schedule, avoid sitting in front of the computer for too long, and get 7-8 hours of sleep each day. Moreover, you should have your eyes checked every 6 months or once a year to detect and treat eye diseases promptly.