As you get older, you may develop a “disease” referred to as MACULAR DEGENERATION, the deterioration of the retina, (inside, back of eye), leading to a loss of one’s vision.

In this Nugget, I want to talk about how to PROTECT YOUR VISION from deteriorating too quickly…and you need to start addressing your vision needs RIGHT NOW!!

To help you make a better choice for youself, your family, and your grand kids, I am going to try to plant in your mind the acronym, ROBB. This acronym, ROBB, is intended to help you to remember one of the most effective protective factors. ROBB is not a cure and it won’t hold off macular degeneration forever. But it may go a long way to helping to protect and optimize your vision health and help to make it last a lot longer than otherwise. So, I will repeat ROBB often…Did I mention ROBB yourself?

Remember this slogan: “Don’t ROBB yourself of your vision”.  I’ll explain in a moment.

Macular degeneration is often described as a disease related to OLD PEOPLE, but it begins  earlier in life, as early as age 30 and 40. Nonetheless, let’s talk about the commonly understood relationship of macular degneration to OLDER PEOPLE. Why and how do “older people” develop macular degeneration?

The literature has many causes, such as: hypertension, (high blood pressure); lack of exercise;  obesity; diabetes; smoking; environmental factors; POOR DIET CHOICES; other diseases; many causes rolled into the category of AGING; etc.  Often, when doctors can’t relate a specific cause, they will cite “GENETICS”.  Just remember, even if it is hereditary or genetics, in some instances GENES can be switched on or off, sometimes by our food choices.

For purposes of this Nugget, let’s rule out any direct disease causes, such as diabetes, blood pressure, etc., and deal with the “normal” aging process and how to protect your vision for  later years in life.

Once you develop macular degeneration, there is no going back. This is not like spraining a muscle and taking time to recover.

Here’s how to protect your vision for later in life by ROBB-ing yourself right now: simply eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with bright colors, including green, leafy vegetables.

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with bright colors: ROBB; and plenty of green vegetables.

Let me repeat this:

EAT plenty of fruits and green vegetables, DAILY. For the eyes, add lots of:

  • R–RED
  • O–ORANGE
  • B–BLUE
  • B–BLACK

AND…stuff yourself whole plant foods as often as you can.

Why?

You often don’t get sufficient nutrition, especially sufficient for your eyes, from eating animal products.

Though animal products contain PROTEIN, and are touted by the hundreds of TV ads as the most important element of nutrition, the massive amount of advertising is causing people to OVERDO it, to over-consume animal products, (aka. animal protein), leaving way too little room on the plate for green leafy, and ROBB vegetables and fruits. So crowd out the animal products on your meal plates by stacking those plates with ROBB fruits and green leafy vegetables.

Vegetables and fruits are considered to be NUTRITIONALLY DENSE. Animal products, including milk, (dairy), are rich in protein. Fruits and vegetables contain protein, too, but are nutritionally dense with thousands of other nutrients as well. Many of those nutrients feed the healthy state of our eyes.

Your eyes NEED plenty of nutritionally-dense foods to protect them. So, eat lots of ROBB foods as well as green leafy vegetables…OR, to keep it simple, eat VEGETARIAN as much as possible…almost always.

One additional tip: never look into the sun and keep the sun off your eyes as much as possible.

Use QUALITY sunglasses that are LARGE ENOUGH, and WRAP AROUND your eyes to prevent sunlight from shining around the perimeter. It may also be a good idea to wear a brimmed hat to prevent sun from sneaking around the perimeter of even the best-fitted sunglasses. And…NEVER, NEVER look directly into the sun!!  Especially, warn your kids to avoid looking at the sun. For those of you with kids interested in SCIENCE–the fortunate few of you–tell them to NEVER look into the sun with a pair of binoculars or a telescope…that just concentrates rays and can literally burn holes in the back of one’s eyes, (one’s retinas).

Stop or hold off MACULAR DEGNERATION by ROBB-ing yourself; eating plenty of leafy green vegetables; wearing quality and tight-fitting sunglasses; and wearing a wide-brimmed hat.

BEWARE: never make any changes to lifestyle, prescriptions, vitamins, diet, until you get authorization from your doctor who is qualified to diagnose and treat disease. If you think you may be beginning macular degeneration, visit your eye doctor as soon as you can…don’t wait too long!