You can’t avoid cataract. But you can reduce the risk of developing the medical condition by eating leafy vegetables everyday.
Researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found that leafy vegetables contain zeaxanthin and lutein — carotenoids with antioxidant properties — lower the chance of developing cataract in people, particularly women, by filtering harmful blue light.
“The oxidative hypothesis of cataract formation posits that reactive oxygen species can damage lens proteins and fibre cell membranes and that nutrients with antioxidant capabilities can protect against these changes,” according to lead researcher William G. Christen of Harvard Medical School.
In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the dietary data of 35,551 female health workers who enrolled in the Women’s Health Study in 1993.
All the participants were kept under medical watch for a period of ten years and the diets of those who developed cataracts were compared with the meals of those who did not get the condition. A total of 2,031 women developed cataracts during the study.
When the participants were divided into five groups based on the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin they consumed, those in the group who consumed the most (6,716 micrograms per day) had an 18 per cent lower chance of developing cataracts than those who consumed the least (1,177 micrograms per day).
Sources:The Times Of India