When you are healthy, you are providing the nutrients and the environment for your body and your eyes to serve you well for a lifetime! When you have unhealthy behaviors like smoking, a sedentary lifestyle with day after day spent looking at screens with no time outdoors, your eyes will pay the price. That price is disease that can affect your eyes! The top eye diseases that can be cured or at least helped by lifestyle include: diabetes, dry eyes, macular degeneration, early cataracts, and progressive myopia.
Of course, your genetic predisposition to these issues plays a role as well, but what you do with those inheritance patterns is up to you. Come see our doctors and ask, “What can I do to keep my eyes healthy?” We can be very specific at your comprehensive exam and give you personalized help so your eyes will last a lifetime.
So what is the best diet for my body and my eyes? The best data indicate that a whole foods, plant-based diet is the healthiest diet on the planet for humans. Many chronic diseases that we accept as a part of aging, are linked to nutrition more than anything else.
Here are links to informative websites to help you distinguish nutrition facts from the sensational bits and pieces you hear on the news.
My Story
Five years ago, despite my best efforts at exercise and moderation in my diet, which was what most would consider the standard American diet, my cholesterol level hit 254.
I had no desire to be on a life-long medication (a statin) so I began looking at other options. I was 52 years old, not overweight, and exercised regularly. I had tried over the past year to eat less dairy and meat, but my numbers continued to climb.
After watching the movie, Forks over Knives, and doing some research, I stopped eating all animal products completely. In six weeks, my cholesterol had dropped to 172. And what were the side effects of my new diet? I had more energy, regular bowel movements, no sleepiness after meals, no joint pain, and improved nighttime sleep.
My grocery bills were lower as well. Since that time, I have been to numerous professional conferences on nutrition and read more studies and books than I have read in years. I also obtained a nutrition certification from Cornell University to deepen my understanding.
What I have learned is so compelling that I will not go back to my old diet. I eat more good food, never go hungry, and I do not miss animal products at all.
If you want to explore how to be healthy, feel great and eat in a way that you can keep up for the rest of your life, try a whole foods plant-based diet!
It will lower your risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease (stroke and heart attack), and even lower your risk for cancer.
Don’t believe me? Do some research yourself and stop listening to the ads from the dairy council and the meat and egg industry. Look at independent research by people who are not trying to sell you something.
In the words of Kim Williams MD, former president of the American College of Cardiology, and advocate of plant-based diets, “I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want it to be my fault.”
