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Fruit helpt oogziektes voorkomen
Het eten van fruit kan bescherming bieden tegen
leeftijdsgerelateerde oogkwalen die blindheid kunnen veroorzaken.
Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek van het Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, zo
meldt de BBC-website dinsdag. De studie werd gepubliceerd in 'Archives of
Ophthalmology'.
De onderzoekers volgden de evolutie van meer dan 118.000 mensen gedurende twaalf
en achttien jaar. Degenen die dagelijks drie of meer porties fruit aten, hadden
36 procent minder kans om leeftijdsgerelateerde oogkwalen te ontwikkelen, dan
mensen die slechts anderhalve portie fruit per dag aten.
Bij mensen ouder dan 65 is dit soort oogkwalen de voornaamste oorzaak van
blindheid. Door het ouder worden, treedt vaak een beschadiging van het
lichtgevoelige laagje in het oog, dat de retina wordt genoemd, op en dat kan
uiteindelijk blindheid tot gevolg hebben.
Bananen en sinaasappels zijn de fruitsoorten die de grootste beschermende
eigenschappen bezitten. (GVA juni
2004)
Prospective
Study of Intake of Fruits, Vegetables, Vitamins, and Carotenoids and Risk of
Age-Related Maculopathy
Eunyoung Cho, ScD;
Arch Ophthalmol. 2004;122:883-892.
ABSTRACT
Objective To examine the
intake of antioxidant vitamins and carotenoids as well as fruits and
vegetables in relation to the development of age-related maculopathy
(ARM).
Methods We conducted a
prospective follow-up study of women in the Nurses' Health Study and
men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We followed 77 562
women and 40 866 men who were at least 50 years of age and had
no diagnosis of ARM or cancer at baseline for up to 18 years for
women and up to 12 years for men. Fruit and vegetable intakes were
assessed with a validated semiquantitative food-frequency
questionnaire up to 5 times for women and up to 3 times for men
during follow-up.
Results A total of 464
(329 women and 135 men) incident cases of early ARM and 316 (217
women and 99men) cases of neovascular ARM, all with visual loss of
20/30 or worse due primarily to ARM, were diagnosed during follow-up.
Fruit intake was inversely associated with the risk of neovascular
ARM. Participants who consumed 3 or more servings per day of fruits
had a pooled multivariate relative risk of 0.64 (95% confidence
interval, 0.44-0.93; P value for trend = .004) compared with
those who consumed less than 1.5 servings per day. The results were
similar in women and men. However, intakes of vegetables, antioxidant
vitamins, or carotenoids were not strongly related to either early or
neovascular ARM.
Conclusion These data suggest a protective role for fruit intake on the risk of neovascular ARM