6 Tips for Eye Health and Maintaining Good Eyesight

11 Foods to Boost Your Eye Health

We have all heard that eating right will make you healthy. Let’s look at

some things you should eat and how they help your eyes.

What should be eat for eye health:

1. Vitamins
2. Minerals
3. What Else Should I Eat?

Activity #2

 Can You See a Vitamin?

Activity #3

 Let’s Eat Some Vitamins!

 Vitamins

A vitamin is something your body needs in order to live and grow. All

organisms need vitamins, and when our bodies don’t make enough,

we go out and eat them. When we eat, our bodies break food down

into components like vitamins. Some vitamins are stored in fat for use

later when our bodies need them. Some vitamins are stored in water,

meaning they don’t stick around our bodies very long, so it’s important

to eat your vitamins! Now some folks prefer to take vitamins in pill

form, but our food can provide all we need ‐ if we eat the right things.

There are 13 known vitamins, 3 of which have been proven to help

your eyes. Foods rich in vitamins A, C and E are good for your eyes and

general health. Vitamin A is good for the cornea. Vitamins C and E

can help prevent eye diseases when you get older such as cataracts

and age‐related macular degeneration. Starting a vitamin‐rich diet

now will give you healthy habits to follow all your life.

• Vitamin C: is stored in water. It can be found in most fruits and

vegetables, especially oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, papaya, green

peppers and tomatoes.

• Vitamin E: is stored in fat. Look for it in vegetable oils (safflower and

corn oil), nuts (almonds and pecans), wheat germ and sunflower seeds.

• Vitamin A: is stored in fat. It comes from milk, egg yolks and liver.

But you can also get Vitamin A by eating foods with beta‐carotene.

Beta‐carotene is converted in the small intestine to retinol‐ a form of

Vitamin A. Beta‐carotene can be found in fruits and vegetables that

are deep orange or yellow such as cantaloupe, mangos, apricots,

peaches, sweet potatoes, squash and carrots.

Minerals

A mineral is neither plant nor animal. Minerals can be pure elements

like calcium or a simple combination of elements like salt. Organisms

need minerals to help them live and grow. To get them, we need to

eat. Rocks and earth are generally made up of many minerals

combined together, but we don’t need to eat rocks to get our

minerals! Instead we can eat plants and animals that have absorbed

minerals through the earth and water.

• Zinc: is a mineral that is good for your eyes and your whole body.

One thing zinc does in our bodies is to bring Vitamin A stored in the

liver to our retinas. People with severe vitamin A deficiencies can have

trouble seeing at night and can go blind altogether ‐ so zinc does an

important job! Good sources of zinc include beef, pork, lamb, oysters,

eggs, shellfish, milk, peanuts, whole grains and wheat germ.