Eyes are undoubtedly one of the most sensitive organs of our body. Keeping your eyes healthy is very important, especially since they get easily affected with during old age. Healthy food intake can save your eyes from a lot of diseases that you can face at an older age.
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common age-related diseases of eye. It causes partial loss of vision and blindness in old-age people, usually those who are older than 50 years of age.
Saturated Fats and Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Age, family history of AMD and ethnic background are some uncontrollable causes of the disease. However, most of the time the disease is caused by causes that can be controlled to a certain extent, slowing down the progress of disease or resisting it altogether.
High-fat diets, specifically saturated fats and cholesterol can increase the chances of causing wet AMD by 80% which is the most severe type of this disease. These high saturated fats and cholesterol can clog up the arteries inside your eyes that provide nourishment to tissues under your retina, deregulating the blood circulation around your eyes and causing blindness and vision loss.
Saturated fats are most commonly found in processed snack foods as well as fried foods. Using food that contains low amount of saturated fats and high amount of antioxidants can lower the risk of AMD. Other nutrition that can prevent this disease includes zeaxanthin and lutein.
However, not all fats are bad for your eyes. Omega-3 fatty acids are healthy fats that are found in fish. These fatty acids are highly beneficial for eyes and can be effective in reducing the risk of AMD to certain extent.
Saturated fats not only affect the vision of our eyes directly but also cause other health problems that can be a source of vision loss or blindness. High fats also cause several heart problems and high blood pressure, which again are direct causes of AMD and blindness in older people. Also, obesity is directly linked to blindness and vision loss. According to the British Royal Institute of the Blind report obese adults and children face a doubled risk of blindness in comparison to other people.
Controlling Your Fats Intake
The importance of taking a fat-free, balanced diet cannot be denied. Lowering down and keeping in check your fat consumption can be highly useful and healthy in order to maintain the health of your eyes. Provided below are few simple tips you can use to control your fat consumption:
- The highest amounts of saturated fats you get are from dairy products. Switching to skimmed dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream etc can bring down your fat intake substantially.
- You can use fat-free, liquid, non-dairy creamers made from soybeans as a substitute of cream for your coffee, tea and desserts.
- Cut back on your meat, fish, cheese and poultry consumption and be careful to take around five servings weekly of fat-free meat and poultry. Two servings of high-fat cheese will be sufficient for a week.
- Add more low-fat foods to your diet as a substitute of the high-fat foods. Your body still requires a certain intake of fat to suffice.
- Try to use very little fat for cooking purposes. Try using non-fat cooking spray or switch to olive oil.
- Baking rather than frying your food can lower the usage of fat in your food consumption.
- Junk food is a high source of saturated fats. Lowering your junk food intake is a healthy habit, not only for eyes but your whole body as well.
Making a few simple changes to your lifestyle can help you in improving your eye health greatly. Fat is one of the major causes that affect your eye vision and causes blindness and vision loss directly or indirectly.
Summary
High saturated fats and cholesterol are the most common causes of Macular Degeneration and Cataracts, two highly dangerous diseases of eyes that can cause partial vision loss and blindness at old age. It is very necessary to take sufficient measures to reduce your fat consumption in order to fight these diseases.
However, reducing fat consumption is not the only preventive measure you need to take for maintaining the health of your eyes. You have to make sure you plan a diet that has nutrient good for eyes and you should schedule a few simple eye exercises for daily use.
You should also buy safe and high-quality products from trustworthy retailers for your eyes. You can easily buy Air Optix Aqua online at GetLenses.co.uk. Taking these small measures can ensure that your eyes remain healthy and safe. (Sarah James)
