There has been a surge for all things healthy living over recent years. With lots of diets, gym memberships and celebrity exercise videos proving more popular than ever, which all have a goal of encouraging us to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Now, we all know the benefits for keeping a healthy body and mind, but what about healthy eyes?
We often take looking after our eyes for granted, but it’s really important to have a healthier lifestyle, not only for our body, but our eyes can benefit too.

In this blog, we talk about the advantages that healthy living can have:

Eating well for healthy eyes

Eating a nutritious, balanced diet is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and we all know that eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is recommended across the UK.

However, studies also show that eating healthily can help us to keep our eyes healthy. What we eat can affect our vision and a balanced diet is known to help reduce the risk of eye diseases. This is due to certain foods being high in antioxidants, which can help to reduce damage to our eyes along with the risk of developing certain eye conditions such as cataracts and age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

There are lots of foods that are recommended for healthy eyes, including oily fish that has lots of omega-3 fats, and dark-green leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach which has lutein. Vitamins A, C and E are beneficial too. We all know that carrots are renowned for being the best food for healthy eyes, but there’s lots of other foods that are just as important – have a read of our 5 Tips for Natural Eye Health blog for lots more nutritional advice, from our guest blogger, Emma Stanley, who is a qualified naturopathic nutritional therapist.

There are also a lot of supplements on the market, that all claim to help with eye health, however these are no substitute for keeping a healthy diet and lifestyle and it’s always best to discuss your options for eye health with your optometrist.

Whilst eating a healthy, balanced diet is great, it’s also important to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity can increase the risk of conditions such as diabetes, which in turn can cause eye problems and could even lead to sight loss in some cases.

The benefits of exercise

Regular exercise is not only great for keeping your body in shape and your mind, it can also help your eye health too.

 Studies show that although there’s not a direct link between exercising and your eyesight, it can help with other health issues like keeping your blood pressure under control or minimising your risk of diabetes by tackling obesity – both of which can have a negative effect on your eyes.

So, it is always a good idea to make the time for regular exercise, even if it’s going for a lovely evening walk in the summer.

What about smoking?

You might think that smoking wouldn’t affect your eyes, but there is a link between smoking and eye disease. Smoking can increase the risk of eye conditions such as cataracts and age-related Macular Disease developing.

Remember to have regular eye examinations

Whilst we recommend keeping a healthy lifestyle for healthy eyes, our other top tip is that you have an eye examination every two years with an optometrist. This gives us the chance to check for any problems with your general eye health along with any changes in your vision.
If you would like to book an appointment with us, then drop by our Littleover Practice or book through our online booking form.