An orange a day may keep macular degeneration away
By Wendy Haaf
Eating an orange a day may help protect against age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of vision loss.
Australian researchers pored over health and dietary data on more than 2,000 adults aged 49 or older who were followed for 15 years. By the end of that period, participants who reported regularly eating at least one serving of oranges a day had a 60% lower incidence of AMD than did those who never ate the fruit. While the researchers had been focused on finding out whether flavonoids (antioxidant compounds also found in red wine and tea) were linked with a lower risk for AMD, they found no such link for sources other than oranges.
In AMD, the central part of the retina becomes damaged; an estimated one in four Canadians develops the condition by age 75. The results of the study were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Photo: iStock/Denira777.
