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If I ask you, what’s the best food for your eyes? Would you reply carrots? Actually it’s orange juice and orange peppers!

Do you have a problem with glare, distance vision, or reading a book? Then you need to take steps to strengthen your eyes. One person goes blind every 11 minutes in the US. Don’t let it be you!

Our eyes work like this: Light enters the pupil, is focused and inverted by the cornea and lens, then projected onto the back of the eye where the retina lies, which converts the light signal into a neural signal. The optic nerve — a bundle of more than a million nerve fibers — carries this signal to the brain.

The main break-downs occur in the lens and retina.

Cataracts, ARMD, Glaucoma

Cataracts are a clouding of the clear lens of our eye when proteins build up in it. Clouded vision makes it more difficult to drive a car, especially at night, or recognize someone at a distance. Cataracts typically affect distance vision and cause problems with glare.

ARMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration) is a breakdown of the macula of our eye, a small area in the retina that allows us to see fine details clearly. Macular degeneration makes close work, like threading a needle or reading a book, difficult. ARMD is the leading cause of vision loss as we age.

Glaucoma is where the optic nerve is damaged by too much pressure within the eye. Usually the pressure build-up is caused by fluids not filtering out of your eye at a normal rate. The drainage system is clogged. Glaucoma affects peripheral vision. A person remains unaware of any problem until a majority of nerve fibers have been destroyed.

Prevention is easier than cure. It’s easy to fix a broken tile in your roof. But if you let the hole get bigger until the day an entire storm bursts through and floods your home, then it’s a horror to fix.

How can we best prevent cataracts and ARMD? And keep our vision sharp? On the one hand, there’s the hee-haw “no known treatment; once the retinal tissues are affected, there is little you can do to stop its slow progression.”

On the other hand, two carotenoids — lutein and zeaxanthin — are found in both the lens and macula. In fact, they are the major carotenoids in the human eye. Studies have shown the obvious, that their density in our eyes is modulated by diet.

Help for Our Eyes

Lutein and zeaxanthin are yellowish pigments found in some plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria like spirulina. They serve as light-gathering pigments and to protect these organisms against the toxic effects of ultra-violet radiation and oxygen.

In the lens and macula of our eyes, they filter out blue light and near-ultraviolet radiation, and function as antioxidants. Thus they protect the underlying tissues from phototoxic damage.

Lutein and zeaxanthin show promise of protecting against both macular degeneration and cataracts.

Lutein Food Sources

We need to eat foods that are rich in both carotenoids. Here’s a good chart on Carotenoids in Fruits and Vegetables.

It shows that carrots are low in both lutein and zeaxanthin (2% each). They are not your best eye food.

Most green vegetables have good lutein, but a very low content (0-3%) of zeaxanthin. Spinach is the highest in lutein with 47%. Next comes cucumber 38%, green pepper 36%, celery 32%, brussels sprouts 27%, green beans 22%, green lettuce 15%.

I imagine all the dark green leaves — like kale, collard, dandelion — are at the top with spinach.

Many gourds are high in lutein, e.g. pumpkin 49%, zucchini 47%, yellow squash 44%, and butternut 37%. So are kiwi (54%) and red grape (33-43%) — both good eye foods.

Egg yolk and corn are highest in both lutein + zeaxanthin. But egg has high cholesterol, and dehumanizes birds into egg-making machines. Corn you never know if it’s genetically modified when there’s no GMO labeling. So I don’t touch those two.

Zeaxanthin Food Sources

There’s evidence that our body converts lutein into zeaxanthin — intake of lutein also raises macular levels of zeaxanthin.

But for conversion to happen, you need intermediate nutrients. It’s best to increase your intake of zeaxanthin itself, and not rely on your body making it out of lutein.

Zeaxanthin is the most prevalent macular pigment, so we should eat more of it.

The chart shows best dietary sources of zeaxanthin are: orange pepper 37% (red pepper is 0% + green pepper 3%), orange juice 20%, honeydew melon 18% (cantaloupe is 0%), mango 16%, and orange 15%.

Eat More Greens

In 1993 the US Case Control Study Group for Eye Diseases showed that when we eat more dark green leafy vegetables, we have 43% lower risk for ARMD.

Victoria Boutenko in her DVD Greens Can Save Your Life calculates that we need two large bunches of greens a day to meet our nutrient needs. That’s a full bunch of spinach and a full bunch of kale!

Victoria eats this as two quarts of Green Smoothie a day. I doubt I’d ever enjoy two meals a day of green smoothie! I’d hate to spend all that time buying, washing + blending so many green leaves and fruits. Besides, it makes meals so boring!

Because eyesight is so precious, I decided to take a supplement — thank you to my optometrist friend Manoj for advising me to do so!

My eyesight is faltering, no doubt from 30 years of heavy smoking from 1966 to mid-1990’s. I blend green smoothies and juice oranges as often as possible, but it’s obviously not enough for my eyes.

Take Supplements

For lutein, 6-12 milligrams daily has shown a decreased risk of ARMD. Zeaxanthin is not as well researched but we can safely surmise 6mg daily will protect our eyes.

Vitamin C helps build the collagen fibers in the lens, and of course it’s a water-soluble anti-oxidant. Many studies have shown protection against cataracts with as little as 300 mg vitamin C daily. You’ll easily get this in living foods from an Automatic Sprouter.

I discovered bilberry improves my vision. I normally don’t take supplements any more, except for B12 and alternating green superfoods. But recently I happened to ingest bilberry when my mom refused a heart supplement I’d bought for her. So I took it myself rather than waste it.

I clearly noticed a difference in my vision when driving at night. In fact, I noticed the change first, so went to the supplement to see what was in it. Bilberry was the only eye-food there.

I’ve just ordered a supplement with lutein, zeaxanthin and bilberry. The best one I found is HBC’s In-Vision. You’ll see from their site that HBC nutraceuticals feature in many pharmacology + herbal research journals, as well as books by MD’s in integrative medicine.

Check out their well-researched In-Vision supplement here. Click on “Eye Health” in the blue lefthand column, then click on “Invision with Lutine.” I ordered 4 for the price of 3, to save on shipping.

I’ve booked an eye test, and will go again in one year to see if In-Vision reverses my weakening eyesight. I’m trusting it will halt further decline.

I also take organic Hawaiian Spirulina which is exceptionally rich in zeaxanthin. One tsp (5g) has 6 mg zeaxanthin.

The body does not synthesize lutein or zeaxanthin, so they must come through diet or supplements. I don’t trust those eye supplements that throw everything in, like zinc and Vitamins E + C too, because they unbalance too many other metabolic pathways.

Rather stick to the absolute minimum you need to care for your eyes — lutein, zeaxanthin, bilberry.

Eye Exercises + Sunglasses

For eye strain, practice 10-10-10. Every 10 minutes, look up for 10 seconds, gazing round to 10-plus feet away. Also look round in a circle without moving your head, rolling your eyes. And blink often when at the computer.

To pump blood into the tiny capillaries of our eyes, we need exercise. They’re like the lymph system. Fluids only flow with exercise. I find running up a little hill over + over works wonders. I instantly see better!

Jumping on a trampoline every hour or so is ideal. It does wonders for back strain too. You stop sitting in the same position for hours, pressing down on the same vertebrae and risking a painful slipped disc.

Ultraviolet light burns our eyes. We need full-spectrum light to enter our eyes daily, but if you’re in the sun at its brightest, try to wear sunglasses. Look for glasses that filter 99-100% of both ultraviolet A and B rays (UVA + UVB).

Protect Your Eyes Today

Remember what I say in the Energy Soup recipe. Ask yourself, Is it different from what I ate yesterday? Eat a variety of colors daily! And a variety of greens.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are also found in nettles, algae and the petals of many yellow flowers such as marigold. When you blend raw nettle into a Green Smoothie, it loses its spikes.

I believe if your eyesight is weakening — and you don’t Blend or Juice two big bunches of greens a day — then begin taking a good supplement like In-Vision today.

Prevention Is the Cure

Trapped for five hours on Friday with my mom in St George’s Hospital, in a tiny doctor’s examination room barely bigger than the bed, you can imagine my stress levels when I got out.

I’m on a short fuse when it comes to hospitals and doctor’s waiting rooms, especially as I’m there for my mother, not for me. So I sit and fume for hours, “Why am I paying for her sins? She chose to eat chicken or fish every day. She chose the flesh foods that led to her colostomy and multiple mini-strokes.”

The human heart and colon are not designed for the saturated fat of flesh, nor its excessively high protein. Please get the RAVE diet book and DVD

True forgiveness, I heard on Oprah, is when you can say to someone, “Thank you for giving me that experience.”

I arrived home Friday evening in a right angry mood. “I’m not going to frail care all weekend.” Frail care is a mini-hospital where my mom is resting this week, in her retirement village. “My nieces can damn well see to her needs!” That’s my mom’s three grand-daughters, aged 22 to 36.

“Why am *I* the one every time who has to sit around for hours in doctor’s rooms and hospitals?” This time it was her colon that had fallen out into her colostomy bag. Last time it was stitches in her face, hand and leg when she fell. Previous to that it was the colostomy op. Time before it was a broken leg when she fell. All in the past year. Not to mention the numerous times I was called to take her down to frail care.

Saturday morning I woke up and, thank God/dess, I remembered the Gratitude. I began to think of all that my mom had done for me when she was 30 (my birth), 40, 50, 60, 70 and even 80. She always gave me so much, so selflessly.

Then I remembered the forgiveness words: “thank you for giving me that experience.” And you know why I was truly thankful? Because something amazing happened on my way home.

Still in my car, my head was filled with visions of a big glass of fresh orange juice and a bowl of raw apple sauce I’d enjoy as soon as I got home. I blend 4-6 apples with fresh ginger to make instant sauce. I stopped at the supermarket and bought a pocket of oranges and 2 bags of apples.

What’s amazing in that, you may ask? Because prior to last Friday every single time I got emotionally stressed in my life, I’d respond with “black-out.” In my youth, that was the disease of black-out, alcoholism. But for the past 20 years it’s been Sugar and TV.

In June my friend’s 21-year-old daughter died of cancer. The funeral was on Friday 22nd June. Straight from the funeral, in the middle of the day, I stocked up with chocolate, muffins (all white sugar where I live) and videos, shut my curtains on the world, and spent the entire weekend with Sugar and TV.

When my emotions were too huge to handle, I did not care if I lived or died. Angelique’s death was so pointless – your 20’s are the most care-free days of your life. Why did she have to die then?

Now, just two months later, for the first time in my entire life, I did not react with black-out. Plus I realized that June’s sugar binge was my brain and central nervous system clamoring for more glucose under stress.

On Friday the oranges and apples were a clear call for glucose. But for the first time in my life, it was a healthy call, to which I gave a healthy response. Perfectly naturally. I did not plan a moment of it. My body-mind has finally reached a healthy balance – after 15 years of evolving into whole plant foods, mostly raw.

Actually in life it’s never a “final.” It’s always an evolving balance. And rightly so, when a living organism interacts with its changing environment. Each time you reach a new level of balance, you see the milestones.

This time the most stressful of situations did not unbalance me. I understand that my real anger is that my mom is dying and I am helpless. The milestone is that I learned over the past two months to eat more calories in the form of fruit and lightly cooked starchy vegetables. When the crunch came, my body-mind was ready. It wanted only more of the same.

Saturday morning I picked out the sweetest strawberries, took them to my mom, made sure she had everything she needed in frail care, gave her a kiss, brightened her day and mine. I’ve no doubt I was thinking so positively, and feeling so good, because of that lovely fruit the night before.

Thank you to Oprah for teaching me how to forgive. Simply say thank you to the person you feel has wronged you. Thank you for giving me that experience. And thank you to raw whole plant foods for liberating me from self-mutilation.

If you are under stress, eat LOTS of glucose in the form of fresh fruit juices and blended fruits. Take it to work with you. Your nervous system will be grateful. Your neurons have to fire more rapidly and more often. Glucose gives them the energy to sparkle.

Blended greens give your neurons the minerals and amino acids they need for their electro-chemical signals. And soaked seed milks (or seed yoghurt) provide the essential fatty acids to build neurons.

Glucose is the quick fix. It’s what you need most under duress. It’s like a cool glass of water for the builders, on a boiling hot day. Then greens and seeds will do the building job.

White sugar will drain minerals from your nerve cells, so they’re unable to fire effectively. Chocolate, muffins, soda and alcohol will depress you even more. Trust me, I know.

Next time I hope to be ready. I’ll think, feel + do: “thank you for giving me this experience” while I am sitting there, not the next morning! My mom will feel the comfort of such an aura.

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