Eye health is something that we take pretty seriously around here, eyes and teeth – we don’t mess around with either, so today I thought we’d talk about foods you can eat to help protect your eye health.
Why? Because today both my husband and I went to the eye doctor for our regular eye exams, as it turns out both of us are a bit blinder in our left eyes than we were last time, which I find oddly funny. Up until now, we’ve had almost the exact same prescription, except mine was different enough that I don’t actually need to wear my glasses if I don’t feel like it. And I totally didn’t make that up, both eye doctors at the office we go to have said the same thing so that’s why you only see me wearing my glasses when I feel like it. Usually when I am watching a lot of TV or go to (non 3-D) movies, when I’m driving long distances and after I’ve had a migraine when my eyes are extra sensitive.
Anywho, when we got home I mentioned I needed to get today’s blog post written and didn’t know what to talk about and my husband suggested talking about eye health since we just went to the eye doctor so here we are!
Protect Your Eye Health With These Foods
Beta-Carotene – AKA Eat Your Carrots
Beta-carotene is a provitamin that helps give vegetables their bright pigmentation and is also good for our vision. More specifically, beta-carotene reduces the stress on our eyes from blue light that gets emitted by the sun and all of our electronic devices we spend too much time staring into. It has also been shown to sharpen our vision.
My mother always told us to eat our carrots so that our eyes would shine and I think she gave us some story about being able to see in the dark. I still believe she made this all up in a ploy to get us to eat our vegetables, likely because we questioned her on how carrots were good for our eyes, but I mean she wasn’t really wrong, haha.
Of course, you can get beta-carotene from lots of vegetables, not just carrots but also most fruits and vegetables that are orange in colour.
Lutein – Bring on the Salad Greens
Lutein is an antioxidant found in most dark leafy greens can lower your risk of macular degeneration. Studies have shown that most of us aren’t getting nearly enough lutein in our diet to lower our risk so it’s important to start taking your salad greens seriously.
Kale Caesar Salad….my fave!
Especially if you tend to stick to iceberg lettuce, it’s time to up your salad game. Foods high in lutein include:
- Kale and spinach
- Turnip and collard greens
- Romaine lettuce
- Broccoli
- Zucchini
- Brussels sprouts
- Peas
Another great source of lutein is eggs – specifically egg yolks, and especially if the egg yolk is uncooked.
Also notably, the lutein in eggs is more easily absorbed into your body so to really cover your bases, enjoy a dark leafy green salad a few times a week at lunch or supper, and an egg when you can – if runny yolks aren’t your style, you’ll still be getting some lutein in a fully cooked yolk so a cobb salad could be the perfect solution to getting your lutein bases covered!
It’s Important to know the WHY
I love being able to educate people on WHY eating certain foods is important. Instead of simply telling you that something is good for you, I find it’s so much easier to help people make a dietary change when they know the WHY behind it. So I hope after reading this and watching the video above you’ll think a little bit more about the foods you eat and how you can help keep your peepers healthy!
