Spinach, Greens, and Eye Health
My optometrist always tells me to eat lots of spinach, that studies conducted in the American Southeast indicate that individuals who eat the most greens are less likely to suffer from macular degeneration later in life. Now The State newspaper has come out with an article called “For eye health, eat spinach like Popeye,” in which they say that a half cup of spinach or three quarters of a cup of collard or turnip greens provides the 10mg of lutein that experts recommend as the daily dose necessary for eye health.
I eat spinach every day. And I take a lutein supplement every day, usually 10mg, but often 20-40mg. (I have read that lutein might also protect the skin.)
Experts say that blueberries, bilberries, vitamin E, vitamin C, and zinc also protect eyesight, and I eat blueberries and take supplements containing bilberries and blueberries, and a calcium supplement containing zinc. But I remember one of the cancer organizations saying that vitamin E and vitamin C seem to protect cancers from being destroyed by our immune systems. I therefore take low doses of vitamin C (20 mg) and vitamin E (100 IU or less) and NOT every day. See the BCcancer web site, where they say, “Water soluble vitamins in megadoses may in some cases be tumor promoters.” And see the HealthDay article “Vitamin E Supplements May Raise Lung Cancer Risk.”
