Save Your Sight!

by Marc R. Rose

  3

  The Nutritional Care and Feeding of Your Eyes

  So far you’ve heard a lot about the powerful negative or positive effects your diet can have on the health of your eyes. Of our Ten Steps to Restoring Vision and Vitality, four of them relate to making foods, fluids, and nutritional supplements part of your daily renewal. Now we’re going to give you very detailed guidelines on nutrients that can help you maintain good eyesight and information on why they work the way they do.

  An eye-healthy diet begins with a diet that’s rich in vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, essential proteins and fats, as well as plenty of clean water. We’re not going to recommend you eat a diet extremely low in fat or extremely high in protein or carbohydrates. These extremes might work for the one person in one hundred with a specific condition, but for the rest of us, balance is key. You can’t eliminate all the fat in your diet without sacrificing essential nutrients. Too much protein can damage your kidneys. Too many carbohydrates will pack on the pounds.

  Since carbohydrates have been the subject of much controversy lately, let’s take a closer look at them.

  Not All Carbohydrates Are Created Equal

  Look in your cupboards and try to identify all the carbohydrates. You might be surprised at the wide variety of foods that fall into this category. The box of sugared cereal, the can of peas, the bag of potatoes, the canister of brown sugar, the box of pasta, the loaf of French bread, the fat-free chips and crackers, the bag of apples and the jar of raw honey all contain carbohydrates. These foods are broken down into glucose, the simplest form of sugar.

  Carbohydrates are an efficient fuel source because they are converted easily to glucose and thus to energy, but if you eat more carbohydrates than you burn off, they will stick with you as fat. That’s right. Sugar, potatoes, and bread all are converted to fat if you don’t use them fairly quickly for fuel. Fat will make you fat, and so will carbohydrates. But not all carbohydrates are created equal.

  There is an important difference between the peas, potatoes, and apples on the one hand, and the honey, cereal, brown sugar, chips, crackers, pasta, and white bread on the other. The first group consists of unrefined carbohydrates, close to the form in which nature made them, while the second group consists of refined carbohydrates created by heating, stripping, and milling of whole foods. Refined and processed foods are stripped of their vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fiber. Preservatives, food dyes, and flavoring agents such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), sugar, and salt are added back in.

  A white-flour bagel will provide you with energy from glucose, but it will give you next to nothing in the way of vitamins, minerals, essential oils, or fiber. When you eat that bagel, your body has to pull from stored nutrients to supply the materials needed to digest and metabolize it. If it had been a bagel made from fresh whole grains, seeds, and nuts, those nutrients would be part of the food itself. Processed foods and sugar have been called “anti-nutrients” because they actually drain nutrients instead of contributing them.

  At the other end of the spectrum, the carbohydrates found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes (beans) are broken down to glucose slowly and supply needed nutrients on the way. Their fiber slows digestion and provides a steady supply of glucose.

  Refined sugars and flours are, in effect, predigested and quickly flood the bloodstream with glucose. Your pancreas releases the hormone insulin to carry the glucose out of the blood and into the cells, but in response to the spike of glucose the pancreas senses a crisis. It releases so much insulin that your blood is cleared of all its glucose and your blood glucose level dives, leaving you feeling exhausted and craving more sugar and refined carbohydrates to kick it back up again.

  Day after day, week after week, year after year—a history of these fluctuations takes its toll. Dropping blood sugar brings on a sharp increase in adrenal “fight or flight” hormones. These hormones work to mobilize stored fat and carbohydrates to keep you going until your next meal. It’s a response designed to supply you with the energy to gather some more edible plants or hunt down an antelope. When refined carbohydrates are in the picture, blood sugar dips precipitously several times a day and the adrenals have to work hard to compensate. There’s some evidence that this can result in exhaustion of the adrenal glands as well as of the parts of the pancreas that make insulin.

  Carbohydrates have been touted for years as the answer to good nutrition and weight loss, yet Americans have grown fatter and fatter. This is because carbohydrates have calories, too! Yes, even complex carbohydrates have calories, and if you eat more than you burn off, you’ll put on weight. The lesson of course is moderation. Make complex carbohydrates a balanced part of your meals and snacks so you can deliver nutrients with your calories.

  Not All Fats Are Created Equal

  Conventional wisdom has urged you for years to replace saturated fats (solid at room temperature) like butter, lard, and coconut oil with polyunsaturated fats (liquid at room temperature) such as safflower and corn oil. But this so-called wisdom is more related to the politics of the processed food industry than to reality; polyunsaturated fats can be just as harmful to your health as the saturated fats.

  Polyunsaturated oils are highly unstable and thus are extremely susceptible to oxidation. You know this as rancid oil. Chances are, that clear new bottle of vegetable oil is already rancid as you open it, and it’s guaranteed to be within days of being opened. These highly oxidized oils run amuck in the body, oxidizing virtually everything they touch and putting a great burden on your antioxidant supply to stop the chain reaction. Rancid oils directly contribute to the clogging of small blood vessels, including those in the eye.

  The essential fatty acids found in unprocessed vegetable oils are very necessary to good health but you need them only in very small amounts. The ideal way to get these oils is by eating plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains, where they are naturally preserved and stabilized by antioxidants such as vitamins A, E, and C.

  Saturated fats are very stable. They don’t oxidize easily. In light of the new evidence that oxidized oils shoulder some of the blame for the blood vessel injuries that lead to heart disease, we advise you to choose small amounts of saturated fats over polyunsaturates. If you eat saturated fats in excess, you will also get yourself in trouble. As always, moderation is your guide to good health.

  The best of both worlds is found in monounsaturated oils such as those derived from olives, rapeseeds (the source of canola oil), and avocados. These are stable and contain essential oils your body needs to function properly. Olive oil has shown promise as a heart disease fighter. As you’ll discover in Chapter 10, anything that promotes blood vessel health helps not only your heart but your eyes as well.

  Cold-water fish like salmon, eaten twice weekly, safely supply unsaturated essential omega-3 oils. Studies showing the value of these oils in improving levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, decreasing inflammation, and keeping artery disease at bay have been published in many medical journals.

  The oils I want you to avoid as much as possible are the hydrogenated oils, also called trans fatty acids, found in margarine, chips, cookies, and most processed foods and baked goods. Trans fatty acids, identified on food labels as “partially hydrogenated,” are partially saturated to address the problem of rancidity, but in the process of making them manufacturers have created a hybrid monster. These manmade oils have been linked directly to heart disease. They will do you no good and will not contribute to your nutrition. In fact I would classify them as anti-nutrients and even as toxins.

  The Cholesterol Controversy

  For a couple of decades, mainstream medicine has been using multiple strategies to lower total blood cholesterol. Diets that restrict cholesterol-containing foods such as meats, eggs, and dairy products, plus barrages of cholesterol-lowering drugs, have been prescribed for millions of people, especially the elderly. Now it turns out that this approach has b
een misguided.

  The reality is that the level of “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood hasn’t been consistently linked to risk of heart disease, and your total blood cholesterol count is almost meaningless. What is important is that you have a healthy ratio of “good” HDL cholesterol to LDL cholesterol and that your LDL cholesterol not be oxidized. Drugs administered to lower cholesterol at all costs generally do more harm than good and have never been shown to reduce the risk of dying.

  A high level of LDL cholesterol is a symptom of blood vessel disease rather than a cause of it. Cholesterol has gotten a bad rap, but it is a vital substance necessary for the transport of antioxidant substances to the eyes and other organs. It is the substance from which all of the steroid hormones are made, including testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and DHEA. If you lower your cholesterol levels with drugs, without addressing the underlying problems causing the high levels in the first place, you’ll suppress the symptoms, but your disease will continue to progress.

  LDL cholesterol is not bad in and of itself. It is oxidized LDL cholesterol particles (also called lipid peroxides) that can clog your arteries and kill you. Although researchers haven’t been able to directly implicate the causes of LDL oxidation, the most educated guesses are that stress, low antioxidant levels, and poor nutrition combined with exposure to toxins such as pollution combine to throw LDL cholesterol out of balance.

  Rather than trying so hard to lower LDL cholesterol, it’s much more important that you raise the amount of “good” HDL naturally with exercise, plenty of garlic, soy protein, and omega-3 fatty acids (found in deep-water fish). A glass or two of wine a few times a week may help protect you from blood vessel disease by raising your levels of HDL cholesterol, It’s important, though, that you indulge with moderation. A habit of more than two drinks of wine daily leads to a large free-radical load, overwhelming your antioxidant defenses.

  If you suffer from eye disease, it’s even more important to be moderate with alcohol. Your liver needs to be in tip-top shape to supply you with glutathione and vitamin A, both crucial for good eye health.

  If You’re Going to Have a Treat, Have a Healthy One

  I don’t know too many people who don’t enjoy a sweet treat now and then. But there are healthy sweet treats and unhealthy sweet treats. If you’re going to treat yourself to ice cream, find a brand that’s made with whole ingredients, without all the gums, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and colorings. All you need to make ice cream is milk or cream, a little bit of sugar, and flavoring like fruit or chocolate. Do you prefer a chocolate bar to an ice cream cone? Find one made with cocoa butter and whole milk instead of hydrogenated oil and milk solids. Become a gourmet sweet eater and make it an occasional treat.

  Cultivate Healthy Eating Habits

  One of the best moves you can make towards healthier eyes is to begin eating fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. Most communities these days have a local farmer’s market in the summer and fall, stocked with colorful piles of organic, fresh-from-the-field produce. If you’ve been eating canned, frozen, and otherwise processed fruits and vegetables, eating fresh organic fruits and vegetables will be an incredible new taste sensation for you.

  Produce that’s not organic may look pretty because it’s coated in wax, but it may be days or weeks old and low in vitamins. It may be contaminated with pesticides and grown in depleted soil that is low in essential minerals. Support your local farmer’s market and tell your supermarket manager you want organic produce. It may cost a little more, but you’re worth it!

  Buy organic or hormone-free and drug-free meat, fish, and dairy products if at all possible. Otherwise they may be tainted by hormones and antibiotics that become concentrated in the fatty tissues of the animals that provide them.

  Eat whole grains such as corn, rice, oats, millet, and barley, as well as legumes such as lentils, black beans, and soy products.

  If you follow these guidelines, your diet will consist of foods in the form that nature intended. Cooking with these foods is easy because they taste so wonderful. With a few spices, vinegars, and healthy oils such as olive or canola, meals can be delicious, hearty, and nutritious.

  Although there is a lot of conflicting information about the best way to eat, there are a few things we know for sure. We know that too much fat and sugar will make you sick and shorten your life and that eating lots of fresh vegetables will make you healthy and lengthen your life.

  Our advice is to stay away from anything in a box, jar, or can whenever it’s possible to do so. Studies that compare diseases show that people in countries like China, Japan, and India, whose diets are composed primarily of whole, unprocessed vegetable foods, suffer significantly less heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancers of the breast, lung, and colon. When these people adopt a Western diet with lots of fat, processed foods, and sugar, they begin to develop the same diseases Americans do.

  Nutritional Supplements for the Health of Your Eyes

  Many patients initially react the same way when we suggest they try nutritional supplements: “Oh, that’s okay, Dr. Rose, I eat a very good diet. I get all the vitamins I need.” They often go on to say that they tried a multivitamin for a while and didn’t notice any difference in how they felt. Their other doctors have told them that all a multivitamin could give them was expensive urine. So they stopped taking them, thinking it to be a waste of money. These people aren’t aware that most vitamin brands carried in drugstores and supermarkets contain only a fraction of the vitamins needed for optimal good health.

  Linus Pauling, a biochemist who won two Nobel prizes in his lifetime, would certainly have contested the “I don’t need vitamins” attitude. His groundbreaking research on optimal vitamin supplementation for the prevention and treatment of disease was the beginning of a nutritional revolution. In the early 1970s, when he began to look at studies about the antiviral effects of vitamin C, he reasoned that people getting only the U.S. recommended dietary allowance (RDA) were failing to tap the amazing powers of megavitamin supplementation. Large doses of vitamin C had already been shown to provide protection against the common cold. As Pauling dug deeper, he learned that vitamin C, in doses amounting to many times the RDA, could have positive effects on heart disease, eye diseases, cancer, arthritis, and allergies, among other things. He coined the term orthomolecular medicine to describe the practice of preventing and treating disease with “substances that are normally present in the body and are required for good health.”

  The medical establishment is taking notice more than twenty years later. Medical journals are dotted with studies about the ways in which natural substances might be used to combat aging and disease. Popular magazines and books are extolling the virtues of nutrient supplementation. Getting only the RDA of vitamins may protect you from diseases like scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) or pellagra (a B vitamin deficiency), but you’ll be missing out on the many other benefits of nutrient supplementation.

  There’s an exciting movement in today’s science of nutrition from simply surviving to feeling great every day. Unfortunately, the medical establishment changes very slowly. Your doctor is still more likely to give you drugs than diet advice.

  Even if you are enjoying good health at the moment, we recommend that you supplement the fresh, natural foods you eat with vitamins, especially if you are over the age of fifty, when your body needs extra nutritional support. We want you to be able to buffer all the toxins in the environment and have plenty of zip and zest left over to enjoy your life to the absolute fullest.

  Common Eye Problems That May Be Caused by Nutritional Deficiencies

  Seemingly minor health problems in the body can be an indicator of bigger problems. For example, leg cramps and other muscle spasms can be an indication of magnesium deficiency, which in the long run can contribute directly to the development of heart disease. Digestive problems such as heartburn and gas can be an indicator of poor nutrient absorption. In the same way, commo
n minor problems in the eyes can be an early indicator of nutritional deficiencies.

  Dry Eyes

  Dry eyes, which are covered in more detail in Chapter 14, “Basic Eye Care,” can be an indication of dehydration; or an allergy to pollens, foods, or cosmetics; or a deficiency of the fatty acid GLA (gamma-linolenic acid). If you also have dry hair, skin, and nails, you may need GLA oils. The usual culprit is overconsumption of hydrogenated oils, which block utilization of the essential fatty acids found in small amounts of fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fish.

  If you have dry eyes, you can try taking a supplement of borage oil, black currant seed oil, or evening primrose oil, all concentrated sources of GLA oils, for three months, while you cut back substantially on hydrogenated oils and increase your intake of fresh vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

  Floaters

  If you ask most eye doctors about floaters, those annoying black or grey specks that drift across your vision, you’ll be told they’re harmless and not to worry. But in truth these clumps of cells floating in the vitreous jelly of your eye may be an indication that the collagen in your eye isn’t as strong as it could be. The solution is to increase your intake of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, glucosamine sulfate, and copper, all of which play an important role in maintaining collagen strength. You can take an extra dose of 1,000 to 2,000 mg of vitamin C daily, 1,000 to 1,500 mg of glucosamine sulfate, and 200 to 400 mg of anthocyanidin bioflavonoids (such as bilberry or grapeseed), and be sure you’re getting at least 5 mg of copper every day in your multivitamin or in a separate supplement.

  Bloodshot Eyes

  We all have times when our eyes are bloodshot from too much sun, too little sleep, or exposure to dust, wind, pollen, or other allergens. But if your eyes are chronically bloodshot and you have ruled out the above causes, it may be that the delicate capillaries in your eyes are trying to tell you something. They’re weak and allowing blood to leak out. For most people some extra vitamin C (1,000–2,000 mg daily) and bioflavonoids (200–400 mg daily) will help within a few weeks.