| Answer: | In the retina the special tissue at the back of your eyeball are light-sensitive chemicals that convey what you see to the brain. These chemicals are made from retinol, or vitamin A. While you can get retinol from meat, much.of the vitamin A we receive comes from fruits and vegetables in the form of beta-carotene.
This is especially abundant in carrots and other orange foods such as sweet potatoes, apricots, melons and tomatoes. Deficiencies in vitamin A make you more prone to long and short-sightedness, glaucoma, eye infections, night blindness and watery or itchy eyes.
The RDA of vitamin A is 600mcg, but this is not enough to keep your eyes optimally healthy. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors obtained something like
10,000mcg. A good diet, including a carrot a day, can give you the equivalent of 7,000mcg, in the form of beta-carotene. I d recommend supplementing a further 2,000 to 3,000mcg (6,600 to 10,000ius). B vitamins and eating enough protein are alsö important in eye health. The herb eyebright helps too, and is effective at combating eye infections and cataracts.
Lutein, found in spinach, kale and other dark green vegetables, is another eye-friendly substance and yet another reason to eat your greens. |
