One of the key senses for human beings is the power of vision. With the advent of technology, our day-to-day activities though trivial, strains our eyes easily. While many things are harmful to our eyesight like phones, laptops, and pollution, it is mainly improper food consumption that can affect the long run’s eyes.

Best Foods To Eat For Improving Vision!

There are foods that are abundant in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, which are essential to improving your eyesight. We will see in detail about the vegetables, fruits, meat, and other sources of vitamins and nutrients, which could help maintain good eyesight and keep you away from any vision-related problems. 

Dark Green Vegetables – Spinach, Broccoli, etc: Vitamin C, A, E are among the most important vitamins which keep your eyes healthy. Dark green vegetables are good sources of vitamin C, A, E, which could help prevent you from getting your eyes strained and blurry vision. Spinach, kale, collards, broccoli are vegetables that are rich in zeaxanthin and lutein. When we are exposed to UV lights, it can be very harmful to our eyes. Like zeaxanthin and lutein, these carotenoids will create a protective layer and safeguard our eyes from getting infected. These vegetables are rich in vitamin A that they can be consumed with our daily diet. Spinach and broccoli are very common in Indian cuisine, and it could be one reason why the people in the olden days had very few eye problems. 

Sweet Potato and Carrot: Vegetables that are orange in color, like sweet potatoes and carrots, are a good source of vitamin A and beta carotene. Eating these vegetables plays a major role in having good vision as vitamin A produces a component called rhodopsin, which helps in light absorption by the retina. People who travel a lot by car or bike tend to get exposed to high beams on roads, which could result in blurry vision. Eating carrots and sweet potatoes regularly will help their vision to stay stronger and not develop power.

Thyme and Parsley: Thyme, parsley are famous herbs used in cooking to enhance the flavors, but it also serves a major role in preventing long term eye diseases like cataracts as they have three times the amount of vitamin C when compared to fruits. Parsley is used to garnishing dishes in many parts of the world and be consumed through soup, while thyme is used to add flavor to roasted meats.

Mango, Guava, Papaya, etc: Lack of vitamin A causes night blindness, which is one of the most common issues, especially in the older population. Fruits like mango, cantaloupe, guava, and papaya are rich in vitamin A, which can eliminate night blindness. These fruits also help in breaking down the protein content in the human body and prevent dry eyes. These fruits can be consumed daily as juices or even eaten raw as it supplies enough of vitamin A to maintain a clear cornea. 

Orange and Strawberries: One of the common problems that old aged people face is cataracts, which is mainly due to the lack of vitamin C intake. Orange and strawberries are loaded with vitamin C, and it is a powerful antioxidant that helps in curing eye infections faster. Most people love to drink a strawberry smoothie and orange juice or even consume them raw. Adding these fruits to a balanced diet highly improves the risk against cataracts. 

Avocado: Avocados are the best fruit to boost the immune system and reduce weight and one of the best sources of vitamin E. It promotes good eye health and also heals the damage from harmful UV rays as it contains a high amount of lutein. Eating avocados will help in regulating good blood flow around the eyes as lutein is accumulated in the blood. Avocados can be added to one’s daily meal with vegetables and, if not, at least part of the morning smoothie.

Sweet Red and Green Peppers: Sweet red peppers and green peppers are good sources of vitamin C and rich in lutein, which helps keep the blood vessels to the eyes and delicate capillaries to the retina. Lack of ascorbic acid in our body can cause damage to the body, especially to the eyes, as we don’t produce vitamin C, so eating these peppers as part of a daily diet will help produce the respective acid preventing eye damages and infections and weak eyes. Deep cooking or frying of peppers will destroy the vitamin C content, so tossing them lightly in any dish or steaming them will be the best way to reap all of its benefits. 

Salmon and Tuna: It is common knowledge that people who eat fish frequently have lesser eye problems compared to others. There are two types of omega-3 fatty acids called docosahexaenoic acid (“DHA”) and arachidonic acid (“ARA”), which are most needed by the retina to function smoothly. Fishes like salmon, tuna, and other kinds of seafood contain these fatty acids. Lack of these fatty acids causes dry eyes and leads to dangerous eye problems like AMD and glaucoma, resulting in permanent blindness.

Poultry and Lean Meat: Meat is one of the excellent sources of zinc. The role of zinc is to transfer vitamin A from the liver to the retina, which helps produce the protective pigment melanin. Lean meats and poultry are excellent sources of zinc. 

Egg Yolk: People get exposed to UV lights very often nowadays, which damages their retina and also the blue light emitted from phones. An egg a day will help in blocking harmful blue light from getting your eyes damaged. The yellow-orange compounds in the yolk help to boost the protective pigment that controls central vision. The quickest and easiest dish for eggs is to just make omelets or sunny side ups.

Nuts: Nuts are one of the best sources of fatty acids and also contain vitamin E, which is very good for the eyes. There are free radicals that can damage the eye tissues if enough vitamins and nutrients are not supplied to them. These vitamins work towards boosting the eye’s health, preventing them from breaking the eye tissues by being a protective barrier. Nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, especially peanuts, can be consumed a little daily to keep the eye health in check.

Oils: Believe it or not, but oil also plays a major role in helping us in keeping our vision intact. Sunflower oil, hazelnut oil, wheat germ oil, and almond oil are all rich in vitamin E. It is one of the most important vitamins that prevent eye-related diseases like age-related AMD, cataract, and long and short sight problems. A lot of people are not aware of the nutrients present in these oils, but we use them for cooking in our day-to-day life. Oils also contain fat; hence, the right amount added in cooking and consumed along with our food could benefit our eyes. 

Wine: For wine lovers, adding a glass of wine to your daily diet will decrease the risk of macular degeneration. People feel relaxed drinking wine because it contains strong antioxidants and quercetin, strengthening the capillaries in the eyes and regulating good blood flow around the eyes.

The Bottomline – We all know the eyes are one of the most important organs in day-to-day activity. Not only are they necessary to function in the world, but they also let us enjoy the beauty of it all. Keeping our eyes in good health can affect how we live our lives, so eating healthy and nutritious food that improves and heals our eyes are quintessential. With the sheer variety of foods available out there, eating just a few of them every day could make a world of difference in one’s eye health. Let us know in the comments below what foods do you eat from the list! Until next time, stay healthy!