This VEGETABLE could be the key to stop you going BLIND

STAVE off a potentially harmful eye disease with leafy green vegetables, advise scientists.

 

Dark leafy green vegetables could stave of glaucoma

 

A diet rich in green, leafy vegetables could significantly reduce the risk of Glaucoma, the important study has revealed.

The debilitating disease is the leading cause of blindness and, even if treated, one in 10 with the condition will eventually lose their sight.

The study discovered those who consume more leafy, green vegetables and therefore nitrogen had a 20-30 per cent lower risk of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).

 

Researchers found nitrates in these vegetables benefitted eyesight

 

More staggeringly, for a type of glaucoma known as POAG with early paracentral visual field loss, nitrogen-rich diets reduced the chances of developing the disease by up to 50 per cent.

Green vegetables are high in dietary nitrate which is converted to nitrous oxide.

The gas has been shown to improve blood circulation and it was this that prompted the research team to look at whether POAG could be improved with a diet rich in these particular vegetables.

 

Radishes, lettuce, red beetroot, spinach and rocket are just some nitrate rich foods

 

They analysed almost 64,000 women and over 41,000 men, all over the age of 40 with no history of the disease over the course of the next 20 years.

Every two years the diets were monitored and nitrate intake calculated.

The study researchers from Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School said: “These results, if confirmed in observational and intervention studies, could have important public health implications."

  

Experts believe this could be a significant breakthrough

 

Food rich in nitrates include celery, kale, cress, chervil, carrots, green beans, parsley, cabbage, radishes, lettuce, red beetroot, spinach and rocket.

Around 600,000 Britons suffer from Glaucoma.

The study was published in JAMA Ophthalmology.