6 of the Best Foods for Eye Health (& How to Future-Proof Your Vision in 2024)

Gene Lim
Some of the best foods for eye health

Worsening eye health is not an inevitable part of ageing. 

You can change your risk trajectory and the first step is to reconfigure your diet to incorporate the following 6 foods for eye health:

1. Carrots

We all grew up knowing that carrots are good for our eyes. And they don’t disappoint.

These sweet and sometimes earthy-tasting veggies are one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, the plant-based building block for vitamin A - the precursor of rhodopsin.

Rhodopsin is a photopigment found in the rod cells of your retina that helps you see at night. So, without adequate vitamin A, night blindness occurs.

Carrots may also offer protective benefits for macular health. A 2019 study suggests that long-term intake of fruits and vegetables that have provitamin A carotenoid, such as carrots, may dial up your macular health a good few notches.

2. Citrus Fruits & Berries

Citrus fruits - good for eye health

Next on our list of foods for eye health are mouthwateringly tart citrus fruits (such as oranges and lemons) and deliciously juicy berries (such as strawberries and blueberries).

Their key eyesight-supporting nutrient? Vitamin C.

As a potent antioxidant, it protects your eyes against UV-induced oxidative damage. This may explain why multiple studies have found an association between vitamin C intake and healthier eyes.

Of course, citrus fruits and berries aren’t just jam-packed with vitamin C.

They’re also rich in folate, the natural form of vitamin B9. To understand the role folate plays in helping you sidestep age-related eye disease, let’s move on to the next item on our list of foods for eye health: dark green leafy vegetables.

3. Dark Green Leafy Vegetables

First, though, you need to know about something called homocysteine. It’s an amino acid that your body usually converts into 2 substances:

  1. Methionine (an essential amino acid that supports normal tissue and repair)
  2. Cysteine (a non-essential amino acid that protects cells from oxidative damage)

However, this process cannot happen in the absence of B vitamins. 

This means that your homocysteine levels can build up when you’re low on folate.

Elevated serum homocysteine levels are a recognised risk factor for eye health. And that’s where your folate-packed dark green leafy vegetables, from spinach to brussels sprouts to broccoli, come in to save the day.

Beyond vitamin B9, these leafy greens are also rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, two key nutrients for eye health. You’ll also find them in eggs, so let’s cover the details below.

4. Eggs

Eggs are a rich source of lutein

While the average human diet boasts 40 to 50 carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin are the only ones capable of traversing from the bloodstream to the human retina and lens.

For good reason. They help promote optimal eye health by:

  • Neutralising existing reactive oxygen species that can damage DNA and
  • Acting as “internal sunglasses” that absorb and filter out blue light, preventing the formation of radiation-induced free radicals

In fact, a large body of evidence supports the protective effects of lutein and zeaxanthin for macular health.

And that’s why eggs deserve a spot on this list offoods for eye health.

They’re a highly bioavailable source of lutein and zeaxanthin that are readily absorbed and effectively used by your body.

There’s even direct support for eggs benefiting eye health. A 2020 study concluded that regularlyeating a moderate number of eggs - about 2 to 4 weekly - makes a significant difference to the health of the retina.

5. Fatty Fish

The feature of fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna, on our list of foods for eye health is explained by their impressive docosahexaenoic acid (or DHA) content. 

DHA is a type of omega-3 fatty acid. It supports vision in 2 primary ways. First, it helps maintain the structural and functional properties of the retina. And second, DHA is a vital component of the cell membrane, and is vital for the efficient transmission of electrical signals between your nerve cells and your brain.

As such, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that research has consistently linked diets rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids with long-term benefits for eye health.

6. Nuts & seeds

Nuts and seeds are beneficial for eye health

In addition to their rich omega-3 fatty acid content, nuts and seeds contain 3 more nutrients designed to keep your eyes in tip-top shape:

Why Food Alone May Not Be Enough for Your Eye Health

Here’s the catch.

Even if you’re already eating all the best foods for eye health listed above as part of a well-balanced diet, you’re still far from truly preserving and protecting your vision.

Here are 3 reasons why:

i) Dosage

To illustrate, an egg provides approximately 200 to 1,000 micrograms of lutein - a far cry from the recommended 10 milligrams daily. This means to fully reap the benefits of lutein for your eyes, you’d need to eat 10 to 50 eggs daily. An unreasonable number by any standards. It’s unlikely that you’d get enough lutein from other dietary sources, either; research suggests that the average adult only gets 1 to 2 mg of lutein daily from food.

ii) Bioavailability

And even if you get enough of a particular nutrient, that doesn’t mean your body absorbs all of it. With age, your body’s absorption of micronutrients, such as vitamin B12 and folate, declines, explaining the prevalence of B12 and folate deficiency in older adults. Any nutritional supplement you take must be highly bioavailable so that your body can absorb and utilise it efficiently.

ii) Nutrients You Can't Get from Food

There are also other nutrients for vision that you cannot get in a typical diet, no matter how balanced or nutritious.

We’re talking about natural botanical extracts like ginkgo biloba, saffron and grape seed, that can help reduce free radical damage, enhance blood circulation, support macular and optic nerve health - all vital aspects of vision.

The only way to get these ingredients into your body is through taking nutritional supplements.

Ginkgo biloba leaves

What It Takes to Truly Maintain Eye Health as You Age

To truly support eye health and maintain vision as you age, you will need to supplement with clinically dosed sight-specific nutrients - bioavailable vitamins and botanical extracts - on top of eating a healthy and balanced diet containing carrots, citrus fruits and berries, dark leafy green vegetables, eggs, fatty fish, seeds and nuts.

The eye health nutrients that you should look into supplementing with include:

Rather than taking these separately, why not consider taking Nutravision instead?

The Nutravision eye supplement is the perfect complement to the best foods for eye health

Nutravision is a science-backed, eye health supplement enriched with all the above ingredients in one convenient, power-packed capsule.

The groundbreaking formula makes Nutravision the perfect solution for those who want to take that extra step to support and maintain their eye health for the years to come.

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