Eye on Nutrition for Eye Health
“The eyes are fundamentally the most powerful driver of what we think,
what we feel, and ultimately what we can do.”– Dr. Andrew Huberman
Back in high school, I remember learning all about the organs of the body, each with a separate purpose. This incredible design was admired as if it were a miraculous machine. Yet since then, science has revealed far more varied and nuanced functions among our organs, leading to a more wholistic view of the human body as a marvelous interplay of intricate and dynamic systems.
According to neurobiologist Dr. Andrew Huberman, the human eye is an extension of the brain. It senses the energy of light, converts it into electric impulses, and transmits it to the the occipital lobe, where it is interpreted as vision. This sensory input is enormously energetic, making the cells of your retina the most metabolically active in your body. To support this activity, the retina requires a lot of blood flow, and is heavily vascularized.
These tiny blood vessels are delicate – prone to leakage and overgrowth, causing the formation of drusen bodies, cellular debris that may accumulate in layers of the retina. Inflammation contributes to this process. The retina is also very sensitive, and vulnerable to oxidative stress caused by radiation from ultraviolet light and free radicals. A healthy blood flow keeps the repair process moving, as antioxidants arrive to neutralize the damage. Healthy capillaries are supple enough to deliver these helpers and carry away toxic waste. Good circulation to the retina is therefore a critical part of eye health.
What role does nutrition play?
We begin with colors. Curiously, the retina is nourished by pigments, the natural coloring of animal and plant tissue. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) – the outermost layer of polygonal cells – must absorb pigments in order to do its job and protect itself. These colors come from plant compounds, or phytonutrients – particularly those that are red, yellow, orange, pink, and sometimes blue. We have co-evolved with the vegetables and fruits that provide these precious compounds, and they’re a necessary part of us. Clearly, the systems of our body are interdependent with the world around us.
Take tomatoes, for example. Tomatoes contain lycopene, a carotenoid that is enhanced by cooking. Lycopene loves your eyes, and helps support and protect the tiny photoreceptive cells of the retina. Lycopene is also found in apricots, peaches, papayas, melons, cranberries, and amla berries. Taking it as a supplement in an isolated form might be better than nothing, but a well-cooked tomato sauce is a better choice. In an ideal world we would all be given free tomato plants as part of our health care. (Prescription food may sound funny, but it’s an idea whose time is bound to come.)
Lutein and zeaxanthin are also beneficial to the eyes, and though they’re often combined with carotenoids in supplements, these polyphenols compete for uptake, so it’s best to consume them separately. Lutein and zeaxanthin are lipophilic (fat-loving), requiring fat in order to be properly absorbed. My favorite food source is goji berries (pictured in the eye above). These tiny Asian fruits are related to tomatoes. Goji berries have been shown to improve antioxidant levels in the retina, and to help prevent the overgrowth of unwanted blood vessels.1 As with tomatoes, goji berries are best eaten cooked. I buy them dried and simmer them gently in a little water before adding them to full-fat yogurt or kefir. Goji berries’ unique and tangy flavor is delicious combined with nuts.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are also found in yellow foods such as pineapples, bananas, yellow apples, lemons, yellow bell peppers, and summer squash. Carotenoids are in orange fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins, cantaloupe, mandarins, papayas, nectarines, and carrots. These colorful fruits are the real eye candy in your supermarket – the kind that is both pleasing to look at and good for the eyes that see them.
Astaxanthin is another antioxidant pigment that supports blood flow to the eyes, as well as the ability to focus. This aquatic carotenoid is what makes wild salmon and shrimp pink. It also occurs in algae – but beware of toxic compounds in certain kinds, and don’t expect the same nutrients to show up in algae cultivated in vats.
Another friend to your eyes is bilberry, a dark blue cousin of blueberries and cranberries. Bilberries are rich in anthocyanosides, which are particularly helpful in preserving night vision.2 If you can’t find fresh or dried bilberries, try to include blueberries and cranberries in your diet – best purchased frozen and simmered gently before eating. Bilberries are also available as extracts, but as with all nutritional supplements, authenticity and bioavailability are questionable at best. Real food in its original matrix of fiber, phytonutrients, and other co-factors is always superior. Food is not meant to be dissected into isolated parts, any more than our eyes are meant to see from outside our head. This is also why it’s good to diversify your diet – because the trace minerals, micronutrients, complex sugars and living enzymes in foods vary according to climate, species, and the quality of air, water, soil, mycelium, and a whole community of microbes. Switch out your spices, try different teas, eat different eggs, choose a new cheese – each adds its own subtle strand to your tapestry of optimal nutrition.
Another way to support eye health is to drink nourishing herbal infusions. These mineral-rich water extracts are like a blanket insurance policy that supports your foundation of health. I’ve been drinking nourishing herbal infusions of nettles, oat straw, red clover, comfrey leaf, and linden for forty years, alternating these five herbs to make a rich and satisfying morning brew (as well as an afternoon beverage). Nourishing infusions are inexpensive and easy to make. (See my article Infuse Yourself With Liquid Nourishment to learn more.)
Other nutrients for the eyes include catechins from green tea and dark chocolate; the amino acid taurine, found in meat, dairy, egg yolks, and fish; and omega-3 essential fatty acids, derived from liver and fatty fish such as sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies, or salmon. Be sure to eat the skin of the salmon, and get your canned fish wild-caught and packed in olive oil to draw out healthy fats. Omega-3 supplements are also acceptable, but as always, get this essential nutrient from food as much as possible – your eyes will thank you with healthy cell membranes that serve you well!
Taking a larger view of nutrition for eye health, it’s worth mentioning the antioxidant glutathione for its role in healthy liver function, which in turn supports the detoxification of your entire body, including waste products from your highly active retinas. Glutathione may be found in avocados, unpasteurized dairy, and turmeric, as well as raw or rare-cooked meat. Whey protein, reishi mushroom extract, and milk thistle seed extract all boost glutathione. Exercise also enhances it. Alcohol depletes it. (See my article Love Your Liver, Pamper Your Pancreas for more on this subject.)
Seaweed helps mitigate the effects of radiation to the eyes, and if harvested from clean water, ushers heavy metals and toxins out of the body and supplies healthy minerals for strong bones. Like many other foods, a friend to your eyes is also a friend to your whole body. Only small amounts of sea vegetables are necessary (or safe) in order to reap the benefits. You can snip little pieces of dried seaweed into any savory soup, stew, or stir-fry. My favorite source of seaweed is here.
Nutrition also plays a vital role in avoiding damage to the eyes. Hypertension and diabetes degrade the health of capillaries that serve the delicate tissues of your retinas. Both are inflammatory conditions that result in high C-reactive protein, fasting insulin, and homocysteine – markers of macular degeneration and metabolic syndrome. Your doctor can order these blood tests at your request.
Inflammation is the key factor that is common to most chronic conditions that plague our society today. Avoid it like the plague, for this is what causes the free radicals that erode the integrity of your eyes. Inflammation is a necessary response to repair acute injury, but when it becomes chronic it’s your enemy, generating oxidative stress and cellular damage in a myriad of ways.
The main sources of chronic inflammation are acidic, ultra-processed food and refined carbohydrates. If you’ve been reading this newsletter, you’ve encountered this basic fact before. The destructive power of excess sugar, refined starch such as white flour and french fries, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and chemical additives cannot be overstated. How much sugar is excess? Consider a low-sugar food as that which contains 2 grams or less. For anyone who is diabetic or pre-diabetic – that is, half the American population – it’s best to avoid sugar and refined carbs completely. My own metabolic health improved greatly when I gave up sugar and flour. My blood sugar normalized, my joint aches melted away, and my tinnitus disappeared. These are all inflammatory conditions that are exacerbated by the free radicals created by too much insulin. What I did not envision was the benefit to my eyes, as the incipient night blindness I was beginning to develop also vanished. Two years later, unlike many of my friends and acquaintances in their 60s and 70s, I have no trouble driving at night and no sign of cataracts. Focus on lowering inflammation, and you’ll be surprised by direct and indirect benefits throughout your body.
Vitamins also play a part in maintaining healthy vision. Vitamin D helps prevent macular degeneration. Vitamin A nourishes and lubricates the cornea – but the preformed supplement type may actually do harm. Find these crucial nutrients in liver, fish, eggs, and pasture-raised dairy. For extra vitamin D, give your mushrooms a sunbath before cooking them.
Vitamin C from leafy green plants, apples, berries, and citrus fruit is also important, as is vitamin E, found in whole nuts and seeds. Don’t forget your minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, selenium, and zinc, found in many of the foods listed here. All are crucial for healthy eyes. Zinc helps to bind the pigments of the RPE. Pumpkin seeds are a great source of both zinc and magnesium. Nourishing infusions provide the most readily absorbed minerals of all.
Exercise also supports vascular health. A good cardio workout increases circulation to your eyes, as well as stimulates the production of nitric oxide, a signaling molecule that expands blood vessels and reduces blood pressure. Certain foods such as almonds, arugula, beets, and raw garlic trigger the release of nitric oxide. (See my article, Nitric Oxide: The New Kid on the Block, for more on this subject.)
Last but not least are your eye’s herbal friends. As I’m typing these words I’m sipping herb tea with rose hips, which contains no less than five different flavonoids and five phenolic compounds that are beneficial to the eyes, including several different forms of lutein and zeaxanthin, as well as natural vitamin C.3 Like most flowers and seeds, rose hips steep rapidly in hot water, forming a rich, dark red tea in just five minutes. That lovely color lets you know it’s good for your eyes. I mix rose hips with lemon balm, tulsi, sage, mint, rosemary, fenugreek or green tea at least twice a week. A scant teaspoon added to these other herbs is all it takes. Rose hips also make a delicious, tangy ice tea, great with a squeeze of lemon.
If your eyes are irritated or inflamed, a compress made from a tea of violet leaves or calendula flowers is soothing and healing.4 But your best ally is chickweed, the common shade-loving plant with tiny star-like white flowers (pictured in the eye above). In times past, every mother knew how to make a chickweed compress for pinkeye. With its slippery saponins, chickweed can break down pathogens and unwanted matter at the cellular level.5 This wild plant is edible when fresh, and may be added freely to salads.
“There is a great deal of peer review research showing that the likelihood of onset of [macular degeneration] can be significantly reduced through lifestyle choices such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, avoiding heavy drinking, managing chronic stress, not being overweight, controlling blood pressure and high cholesterol, as well as supplementing with targeted supplements such as lutein, zeaxanthin and omega-3 fatty acids.”6 – Dr. Marc Grossman
The picture is clear: caring for your eyes is a matter of common sense and an overall healthy lifestyle. What nourishes and protects your vision will also strengthen and vitalize your heart, protect your brain, support your liver, and maintain your joints. The list of benefits keeps growing, and new connections between and among our bodily systems continue to be discovered. We are walking superhighways of energy and organic compounds. Once you see that, it’s easy to make the right choices.
To your good health –
Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach
Special thanks to holistic optometrist Dr. Marc Grossman for his input on this article.
Yael Bernhard is a writer, illustrator, book designer and fine art painter with a lifelong passion for nutrition and herbal medicine. She was certified by Duke University as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021 and by Cornell University in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. For information about private health coaching or nutrition programs for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com. Visit her online gallery of illustration, fine art, and children’s books here.
Information in this newsletter is provided for educational – and inspirational – purposes only.
Have you seen my other Substack, Image of the Week? Check it out here, and learn about my illustrations and fine art paintings, and the stories and creative process behind them.
https://journals.lww.com/optvissci/abstract/2011/02000/goji_berry_effects_on_macular_characteristics_and.12.aspx
https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/features/bilberry-extract-and-vision
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/15/5337
Weed, Susun, Healing Wise, Ashtree Publishing, 1985.
http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/May08/healingwise.htm
https://www.townsendletter.com/article/441-integrative-medical-approach-macular-degeneration/