Your eyes are what you eat?

A study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology presented a possible link between the stereotypical American diet and risk of developing macular degeneration. Researchers compared the Asian¬†dietary pattern to the Western dietary pattern of those who participated in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Dietary intake was determined by data collected from a 90-item food frequency questionnaire. Researchers identified the two dietary patterns as 1)¬†Asian,¬†which was a diet based upon high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, seafood and whole grains while the 2) Western diet was deemed a diet that consisted of high-fat foods, French fries, refined grains, eggs, processed and red meat. Researchers concluded that diet does indeed raise the risks of developing macular degeneration. Those following an Asian¬†diet pattern scored a risk of .74 for developing early AMD while the Western diet scored a risk of 1.56. When looking at the odds for developing the wet form of AMD, the Asian¬†diet had a score of. 38 while the Western diet had a score of 3.70. Further study of diet correlation is warranted based on these preliminary results.*