Age Macular Degeneration & the Rainbow of Foods
To prevent age macular degeneration, think rainbow! If you have macular degeneration symptoms or are in a high risk category for ARMD, read on.
Of course you’ll want to do other things we talk about on this blog, from having a professional eye check and learning about types of AMD and treatment options, to taking a quality eye health supplement and wearing sunglasses. Meanwhile, and in any case, enjoy eating your way through the rainbow.
Here’s to your health and vision!
RED: Go for strawberries, raspberries, cherries and cranberries. Refresh yourself with watermelon on a hot day. Eat beetroot and tomatoes. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, especially when cooked. All these red fresh foods and berries are full of vitamins and antioxidants, great for your general health and eye health in particular. And a glass of red wine has antioxidant properties too.
ORANGE: Oranges, of course, and mandarins. Then there’s carrots (wonderful food for eyesight) and pumpkin, squash and sweet potato, apricots, peaches and pawpaw. We’re talking betacarotene for vitamin A, and lutein and zeaxanthin, special antioxidant carotenoids for the macula in the eyes. Nasturtium flowers are edible. And don’t forget those marigolds!
YELLOW: Lemons (vitamin C), pineapple, mango and bananas (rich in potassium and a quick energy boost). Also corn (sweetcorn) and egg yolks, which are a source of lutein (= eye vitamins). Eggs give us quick protein.
GREEN: If you can, eat loads of green leafy veges like spinach, kale, collard greens or Asian greens. Mix raw salad greens - not only lettuce, of different types if possible, but watercress, rocket etc. Add herbs, whatever you can source, from common parsley (fabulous health benefits) to gingko leaves or salad burnett … Go wild with greens beans and peas, and broccoli: it’s a so-called "superfood", full of folic acid, vitamin C and lutein. All of these have higher natural nutrient values if they’re organic, so if you possibly can, buy organic or grow your own … Then there’s green pepper, green grapes, green (or any colour) apples. And you could try wheatgrass, or powdered spirulina or chlorella for extra, intense "greens".
BLUE: Are blueberries available to you? I don’t think you can eat too many of them. Look for plums, too - and other "blue" or dark berries below in this rainbow. And if you have access to a culinary sort of garden, pick truly blue borage flowers (sometimes called starflower) and sprinkle over salads or in fruit punch.
INDIGO (PURPLE/BLACK): Gorge on blackberries, bilberries (noted for eye health), grapes - eat the seeds too - and eggplant or aubergine.
VIOLET: Well, I couldn’t resist showing a picture of violets, and they are another edible flower, after all. What common foods are violet or pale purple? There’s a pretty, white-streaked pale purple eggplant, there are purple potatoes, and red cabbage is really purple too so its picture might boost the violet line, and our rainbow is fairly complete:
There are plenty more fruits, vegetables and other foods to fit in a health-giving rainbow: add your own! I’d like to continue with other colours (& benefits), but this post is long enough, so more next time.
Just remember, eat from the rainbow of natural, whole foods and enjoy their health-giving properties to protect you from worsening macular degeneration symptoms , or from onset of age macular degeneration.
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