Reflections on sight loss - RNIB

Food for thought – and sight
Five a day
The ‘five a day’ recommendation is often confusing. Some of the important points are:
● Fresh, cooked, tinned and frozen produce all count.
● One glass of juice counts, but it should be pressed rather than made from concentrate.
Further glasses won’t count, because juice has very little fibre and is high in sugar.
● One serving of pulses (such as lentils and chickpeas) count, and this includes baked beans.
Further servings won’t count, because pulses do not have the same nutrient mix as other
vegetables. They are a good source of low-fat protein, though.
● Potatoes don’t count at all, as they are considered to be a source of carbohydrate rather
than of vegetable nutrients.
Links: www.5aday.nhs.uk
introduced mainly as a convenient hook for
raising fruit and vegetable consumption.
Pretty well all dieticians recommend that five
should be a minimum. And this only serves to
underline the fact that, as a nation, we simply
aren’t eating many fruit and vegetables.
On the other hand, we are making a conscious
effort to cut down on red meat, and older
people are leading the way. Following a report
from the World Cancer Research Fund in 2007,
which linked these to an increased risk of
cancer, a report from the same organisation a
year later showed that one in 10 people had
made an effort to reduce their red meat intake.
Eyes in particular
Cutting down on red meat is good news for
eye health. The most common cause of
blindness in the UK is age-related macular
degeneration (AMD), which is the only eye
condition that has substantiated links with
diet – and this was the subject of the research
by the College of Optometrists.
The researchers from the University of
Melbourne followed 5,600 middle-aged
people for 13 years and found that those
eating red meat 10 times a week were nearly
one and a half times as likely to have early
AMD than those who ate it fewer than five
times. In addition, those who ate chicken
frequently – at least seven times a fortnight –
were significantly less likely to have developed
late AMD.
This was only a first study. But it is significant
in that it supports wider evidence that a
‘Mediterranean diet’ – high in fruit and
vegetables and oily fish, low in red meat – is
as effective in cutting the risk of AMD as it is
in cutting the risk of heart disease, diabetes
and cancers. Another study published in the
British Journal of Ophthalmology, June 2009,
backs up these findings – and even suggests
that these fatty acids can slow (or in some
cases halt) the progress of AMD. ➜
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