Here come the great news! New research shows that dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and cabbage as well as citrus fruits, pineapples, carrots and tomatoes can slow down the onset of cataracts!
PHOTOGENIC FRUIT VS CATARACTS
Cataracts and fruits and vegetables. How are they related? Although an obvious one, it isn’t a direct connection.
Did you know that the global medical bill for cataract procedures is 5.7 billion dollars? That figure could be cut in half, though, with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
Australian and Chinese scientists published the results of a global meta-analysis on this very topic.
Meta-analysis is fashionable now. One of the advantages, for the analysts themselves, is that they don’t have to do anything. Not all meta-researchers, though, are wasting grant money or the readers’ time, but we should note that a good analysis costs more than bad research.
That said, they looked at 20 studies from around the world on the effects of vitamins and carotenoids in the development of cataracts.
The data confirmed what our readers already know. Dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and cabbage (on the lighter side), as well as citrus fruits, carrots, tomatoes, and paprika – all are effective.
In praxis, this means they can delay the onset of cataracts for several years or longer.
So why are these photogenic fruits so effective?
It’s the usual suspects – vitamins A, C, and E, beta-carotene, and the antioxidants leutin and zeaxanthin.
CATARACTS AND MONEY
Researchers are most worried about how this will affect the health care system. Just refer to the numbers above.
But everyone wants to be able to see without surgery (perhaps excluding me, because I already had that operation in the past), and not deal with the impressionist’s version of the world – blurry, with three moons in the sky instead of one.
Furthermore, not everyone lives in the right place, has access to the right doctors, or has the financial capability. Therefore, cataract operations aren’t always available.
So this is great news.
There are other foods that help, as well. Beans, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds, nuts, salmon, and eggs are also your friends, according to some sources.
Vadim Avrukin
Photo by Gabriele Bartoletti Stella on Unsplash