gms | German Medical Science

Since the early 2000s, there has been a re-evaluation of the role of diet in eye health. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS 1 & 2) and the impact of supplements on macular degeneration (MD) as well as the role of diet in dry eye syndrome (DES) have increased ophthalmologists’ awareness of dietary intervention. Feast Your Eyes – The Eye Health Cookbook, Seaview Press, 2010 was compiled for patients and on the one hand reviews the role of diet in a range of ocular conditions and as well as providing appropriate gourmet recipes.

It is believed that chronic inflammation is at the root of many maladies including MD and DES and it transpires that traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet have anti-inflammatory properties. The Mediterranean diet was popularised in the West after WWII at a time when processed food was becoming widely available. Originally such diets were promoted to benefit cardiovascular health and it has taken until recently to understand their likely benefits for eye health. That processed foods, poor in micronutrients and with an imbalance of essential fatty acids are likely to be injurious to the visual system should perhaps come as no surprise.

This presentation will provide a précis of Feast Your Eyes and will review eye diseases in which diet has been implicated as well as elements of nutrition that may be beneficial.