Think of how important your eyes are in your everyday life. With how essential they are, it’s vital to nourish them every day. From sunshine to eating nourishing whole foods, your eyes will be happy and healthy if you follow these tips!
What can you do to support healthy eyes and vision?
First up is sunlight. Exposing your eyes to sunlight at the correct times during the day is simple and has fantastic benefits. At sunrise and sunset, try to get outside and get at least fifteen minutes of sunlight, and you get bonus points for walking barefoot in the grass. Get the morning sunshine before you look at your phone or a screen. Not only will your eyes benefit, but it also helps reset your sleep cycle, improve immune health, and boost your mood.
Blue light-blocking glasses are an importantstep in keeping your eyes healthy. Constant exposure to screens has a very harmful effect on the eyes. You should wear your blue light glasses while working on the computer and after dinner when the sun sets. Unfortunately, most blue light glasses block very little blue light. Get a pair that blocks over ninety percent of blue light if you want the benefits, such as improved eye health and a better sleep cycle. Turning on the night light feature on your phone and computer can also help reduce the amount of blue light the eyes are exposed to throughout the day. Make sure to take a few breaks from screens every hour, even for just a few minutes, to rest your eyes.
Many different types of eye exercises can help be helpful to improve vision. However, doing them every day is key to getting the benefits. Click the button below to download a guide to eye health exercises.
Chronic uncontrolled stress can have a strong negative effect on the eyes. It can increase the risk of vision loss from glaucoma, optic neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, age-related macular degeneration, and other eye health issues. Getting and keeping your stress levels under control is crucial to keeping your eyes healthy. Check our blog, Stress 101, for tips to reduce stress levels.
Drinking plenty of water is another way to keep your eyes happy. If you don’t, they can become dry and irritated, making them more susceptible to blurred vision, increased tearing, and in severe cases, corneal ulcers. Ensure you get plenty of fluids such as mineral water, herbal teas, seltzer, and milk. In the winter, when the air gets dryer, a cold steam humidifier in the room you sleep in can be helpful to prevent common dry eye issues that can occur from lower humidity and heating systems. Preservative-free lubricant eye drops can be used as needed for dryness. Avoid redness-relieving eye drops as they often contain ingredients that can constrict blood flow in the eyes. Make sure to see an eye doctor if you have chronic dry eye problems.
If you are bored with water, try adding some whole-food flavors instead of those awful fake water flavor products.
As with the rest of your body, what you eat and how you nourish yourself makes a big difference in the health of your eyes.
What foods support healthy eyes and vision?
While some foods nourish the eyes, others cause harm. Avoid these foods to ensure your eyes are at their healthiest:
Vegetable and seed oils, fake butter spreads
They cause large amounts of inflammation and oxidative stress, damaging the eyes. I cannot think of foods more damaging to human health than these. If the only change you made was this one, it would still result in a massive improvement in your health.
Instead, use grass-fed butter, grass-fed ghee, grass-fed tallow, and genuine olive oil (be careful with olive oil as most olive oil is adulterated with vegetable and seed oils, even at the health food store).
Refined flours and sugars
Artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and no-calorie, heavily refined sweeteners
Instead, use small amounts of local honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar.
High-fructose corn syrup
Ultra-processed foods
Artificial food dyes
Fake food
What do I mean by fake food? Check out the picture below.
Two of the burgers above are made from real food, and one is frankenfood made by mad scientists. Ultra-processed fake foods exist to make companies money. They are not better for your health or the environment, no matter what nonsense claims companies make. In fact, in terms of environmental benefits and nourishment supplied, regeneratively farmed grass-fed beef is far better than the others, especially if the meat is local to you. Eat real food!
Certain foods provide nutrients in their most bioavailable and complete forms. Adding these foods frequently to your diet gives your eyes the nourishment they need. However, just eating them once in a while will not cut it. Your eyes need nourishment every day, so eat these foods daily.
What nutrients support healthy eyes and vision?
Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for healthy eyes. Beta carotene and vitamin A are not the same things. Vitamin A has far more benefits for eye health than beta-carotene; most people get very little in their diet. Good sources of vitamin A are:
Grass-fed liver and organ meats
Mackerel
Pastured eggs
Grass-fed dairy products, especially hard cheeses and butter
Clams
Oysters
Vitamin C rich foods can help reduce the risk of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Good sources of vitamin C include
Berries
Citrus fruits
Avoid grapefruit if you take prescription medications
Guavas
Mangos
Pineapples
Amla berries
Kiwis
Cantaloupes
Papayas
Red Peppers
Basically, eat plenty of fruit (fresh and frozen are both excellent).
Synthetic vitamin C supplements are not the same as foods rich in vitamin C; check out our article, All about vitamin C, to learn more.
The Vitamin C gang!
Vitamin E rich foods help to protect the eyes from damaging free radicals. Good sources of vitamin E are:
Sweet potatoes
Pastured eggs
Pumpkin
Avocados
Mangos
Kiwis
Wild salmon with the skin
Zinc helps to bring vitamin A from the liver to the retina to help produce melanin, a pigment that helps to protect the eyes. Certain health conditions have been linked to zinc deficiency, such as poor night vision and cloudy cataracts. Good food sources of bioavailable zinc are:
Grass-fed red meat
Shellfish
Oysters
Crab
Lobster
Organ meats, especially liver
Omega-three rich foods help in proper vision development, retinal function, tear production, and lubrication. Good food sources of omega-three fatty acids (EPA, DHA, DPA, etc.) are:
Wild-caught fatty fish and shellfish
Wild salmon is also rich in astaxanthin which helps to reduce oxidative stress.
High-quality canned fish with skin is a great choice as well.
Tinned cod livers
Pastured eggs
Grass-fed red meat
Grass-fed full-fat dairy products
Flax, hemp, and chia do not have the type of omega-three that the eyes need; they contain something called alpha-linoleic acid, which the body only turns a tiny amount into the omega-three needed. You can learn more about this here. They are also very high in omega-six; nearly everyone gets too much in their diets.
Over ninety percent of people in the USA do not get enough omega-three fatty acids, so eat up.
Lutein and zeaxanthin-rich foods help to reduce the risk of chronic eye diseases.
Good food sources of bioavailable lutein and zeaxanthin are:
Pastured Eggs
Certain fruits and vegetables are rich in them, but it's important to eat them with some fat to increase absorption.
Summer squash
Basil
Parsley
Red Peppers
Romaine Lettuce
Purple berries and plums
Lacinto (aka dinosaur) Kale - The best kale to eat because it is the lowest in oxalates and goitrogens. It is best to eat this cooked, not raw.
Foods that support healthy blood flow and circulation are great for the eyes. Some of these foods are:
Wild-caught fatty fish
Pomegranates
Citrus fruits
Avoid grapefruit if you take prescription medication
Berries
Watermelon
Purple and red grapes
Ginger
Avocados
Garlic
Turmeric
Eat turmeric cooked with good fat, like grass-fed ghee, to help increase the absorption of beneficial compounds.
Avocado egg boats are a great way to nourish your eyes and make a delicious breakfast!
What whole food supplements support healthy eyes and vision?
Just as whole foods nourish the eyes, true whole food supplements (there are soo many fake whole food supplements on the market) can play a role in helping to keep your eyes healthy. As with all supplements, it’s essential to take them daily and consistently at the full dosage for the correct period of time. Taking one pill once in a while will not give you any benefits. So if the bottle says four capsules per day, make sure to take four capsules every day. While many whole food supplements can support healthy eyes, we wanted to highlight a few of our favorites.
First up is NXGEN Wholefoods Beef Eye with Liver. Think of this as a whole-food multivitamin for your eyes. This supplement combines grass-fed eye and liver, which supplies vitamin A, bioavailable fat-soluble nutrients, and is a rich source of zinc, to help nourish and support your eyes. Beef eye is one richest food sources of highly bioavailable lutein and zeaxanthin.
Rosita Unrefined, whole-food cod liver oil is a natural source of omega-3, vitamin A, and vitamin D. It contains these nutrients in their original state, as found in the fish. Unlike nearly all cod liver and fish oils, it does not contain added synthetic vitamins, has not had the structure of the fatty acids altered, and has not been heavily refined. It helps keep the eyes moisturized and lubricated, promotes circulation, and reduces oxidative stress.
NXGEN Wholefoods salmon roe capsules are another great option for getting omega-3 fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins your eyes crave in their natural, unrefined, and unaltered state. The omega fatty acids are naturally in a phospholipid form, which helps to increase absorption and make them easy to digest and gentle on the stomach.
Next up is a whole-food zinc supplement. NZ Pure Health Oyster zinc contains zinc in its whole food, bioavailable form, and naturally occurring copper, which helps to prevent a copper deficiency that can happen when taking zinc supplements long term. In addition, it is easy to absorb and gentle on the stomach, unlike most zinc supplements which cause an upset stomach.
Bilberry is an excellent herb for healthy eyes. Unfortunately, most bilberry supplements are adulterated because it is a costly ingredient. Often, instead of bilberry products contain things like charcoal, banned red food coloring, and black soybean hulls. The potent compounds in bilberries help to support healthy eyes and circulation.
Spirulina is a fabulous food for the eyes. It is rich in the fatty acid GLA, zeaxanthin, and phytocyanin in their natural whole-food form, which helps to reduce oxidative stress and protect the eyes. Unfortunately, most spirulina is grown in questionable places with high pollution levels and open ponds, leading to contamination. Therefore, understanding where your spirulina comes from and how it is produced is imperative. In addition, most spirulina is spray dried which causes nutrient loss and unwanted changes to the spirulina.
Nourishing your eyes will benefit not only them but your whole body. Including more whole foods, drinking water, getting sunshine, and reducing stress will help you feel much better. You don’t have to try and do it all at once. Making small, consistent lifestyle changes builds up over time, snowballing into lasting beneficial changes.
Eye Health and Vision Support
We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about eye and vision health, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, or schedule a free call. We will be happy to answer any questions you have!