Know the Relationship Between Antioxidants and Healthy Eyes

You may be wondering what an antioxidant has to do with the health of eyes, but in reality there are many antioxidants that are needed for maintaining a better eye-health.

For instance, when you consider vitamin A, it is primarily an effective antioxidant that aids in a good retinal health and for a strong vision at nights.

Your body will convert vitamin A into retinol, a fat-soluble compound, and stores it in your liver. The stored retinol will be released and transported to retina and for this purpose, your body should have sufficient quantities of zinc.

You can have a rich source of vitamin A from fish, eggs, fish liver oil and liver.In order to augment supply of vitamin A, you can also use beta-carotene, which is known as carotenoids and is a precursor of vitamin A.

Further, beta-carotene can also be used as a valid substitute for vitamin A and due to the precursor nature this will get converted to retinol in liver.

Many eye care surgeons have discovered that managing glaucoma is possible with an additional vitamin A supplement combined with magnesium and in fact they even prescribe this as a regular health care tip.

There are a wide variety of food sources that contain beta-

carotene and among the list sweet potatoes tops the list.

Few other beta-carotene sources are raw carrots, apples, a host of fruits and vegetables such as mangoes, butternut and hubbard squash, purslane (this is in fact a weed, but it is being cultivated on a commercially large scale for use in salads), beet greens, kale, turnip, dandelion greens, fresh or dried apricots, collards, mustard greens, papaya, red pepper, cantaloupe, Swiss chard, bok-choy, tomatoes in any form such as juice or sauce, broccoli, romaine lettuce, avocados, asparagus nectarines, tangerines, prunes, and plantains.

You can also get very good quantities of beta-carotene from green peas, Brussels sprouts, Savoy cabbage, peaches, oranges, and bananas.

Many of the sources from which you get beta-carotene are natural resources, and from such natural resources besides beta-carotene you also get carotenoids as well, and additional many other necessary compounds that help in betterment of health.

In case diabetic patients their body will not be able to convert beta-carotene to retinol and hence they should take vitamin A supplement in a fat-soluble form.

You cam get fat-soluble vitamin A form in eggs, liver and fish liver oil. A recent study that has been conducted to assess the detrimental behaviour of chemical fertilizers revealed that the nitrate and nitrite contents of fertilizers are capable of destroying vitamin A.

Besides these, a severe air pollution, extra cooking and canning process can also destroy vitamin A contents from food or weaken the effect of vitamin A.

The beta-carotene is the only member of carotenoids that belong to natural category and helps in achieving eye health in a natural way.

Further, lutein and lycopene are the other two carotenoids next to beta-carotene that help in your eye health directly. Lutein can be found in food sources such as marigolds, spinach, kale and sunflowers and the Lycopene can be derived from tomatoes.

Of late, Lutein started receiving a great attention due to its efficacy in controlling macular degeneration problem. The study conducted to assess the beneficial aspects of lutein.

This reveled that a diet, which is rich in lutein, will be able to protect your retina from damage caused due to oxidation and you will have an effective protection against your macula getting degenerated.

Food items such as kale, spinach, Brussels sprouts, green peas, broccoli, collard greens, leaf lettuce, and summer squash are very good sources for lutein content.

Other food sources such as marigold, corn, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, and tomatoes do have lutein but in very moderate quantities only.

Lutein is also made available in supplement form, and you can have them in two forms namely in separate supplement form or as a therapy formulation form.

However, it has been strongly advised that you should not take lutein and beta-carotene together simultaneously as these two compounds compete each other at the time of absorption in your intestines and you may lose any one of them.

Hence it has been advised to take beta-carotene and lutein separately, preferably beta-carotene with your breakfast and lutein with your dinner.

You can also bear in your mind that both lutein and beta-carotene are better absorbed by your body system if they are combined with a little amount of fat.

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