As we roll into the holiday season, sharing meals with family and friends is at the top of the list for many.  Thanksgiving meals aren’t typically known for their health benefits, however, a few conscious choices could offer up healthy options that benefit both eye and overall health.  All the holiday greens, yellows, reds, and oranges on your Thanksgiving table contain eye-healthy ingredients galore.  This is excellent news for those of us who always end up with eyes bigger than our stomachs this time of the year! We are here to celebrate and share with you some of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes and how they correspond in benefiting your eye health.

Dishes containing food such as carrots, sweet potatoes, cherries, apricots, kale or pumpkin are all rich in the nutrient beta-carotene.  Beta-carotene is converted to retinol that is essential for vision.  It is a carotenoid and antioxidant that promotes night vision and overall good eyesight.  Most are familiar with this nutrient in carrots, but in the event you aren’t a carrot lover, there try one of the other options to get your fix.

Spinach, green bean casserole, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts along with other leafy greens are …

Each year, November 14th is recognized as World Diabetes Day. IDF and the World Health Organization created World Diabetes Day in 2011 in response to escalating health issues surrounding diabetes and diabetic eye diseases.

Diabetic eye disease describes a group of eye conditions that include diabetic retinopathy (DR), glaucoma, diabetic macular edema and cataracts. DR is often reported as the most common form of diabetic eye disease. It is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), afflicting one third of all people with the disease, and it is the leading cause of blindness among the working population in the world. Over 40% of patients diagnosed with diabetes eventually develop some level of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Regular vision care is an important part of diabetes management.. DR affects the tiny blood vessels of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eyes. In the less severe form of DR, blood vessels swell and leak small amounts of blood and fluid into the eye. Vision may be unaffected, giving no clue to the presence of disease. Untreated, this mild form of DR can progress leading to macular ischemia, in which capillaries in the macula close and cause blurred vision. More …