What foods are bad for your eyes and whats good for your eyes.

 Just wondering what foods are bad for your eyes?  Everybody says carrots are good for your eyes.

I hope watermelon is good for your eyes cause I just ate a lot....

This link shows that according to Ayurveda, watermelon increases IOP.

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/troubleshooting.html

I've read about it in a Ayurvedic book too.. don't remember which one.

I love Watermelon, but have stopped eating it due to this information.

Maybe someone with a tonometer can confirm this for us?

 Girish,

Thanks for the link....now I wonder if what was said can be verified too.  Here's what he said

Ayurveda says watermelon increases intraocular pressure - the pressure in your eyes. This suggests that watermelon fasting is not appropriate if one has glaucoma, optic nerve disorders, detached retina, or other serious eye problems (consult your Opthalmologist). Obviously, your eyesight is too valuable to put at risk!

I have not seen any increase in my intraocular pressure after eating watermelon. I'll give you an opposing view just so you don't become overly fearful of eating any watermelon. Watermelon is a diuretic. So if drinking water can increase intraocular pressure, could the diuretic effect of watermelon counteract this? (I doubt it would have any significant effect, but I'm just providing a possible alternative viewpoint.)

At times I have eaten large amounts of watermelon and I have never seen it increase my intraocular pressure. However, it might be interesting for some other people to test it too.

 Dave,

I'm glad to hear this. I love watermelon. 

I noticed this discussion on watermelon and am interested because I have been eating a lot of watermelon for the past several months. Watermelon is one of the foods that is highly alkaline so it will help balance the body pH, which is why I have been eating it. I have not noticed a correlation to increases in my IOP but I am wondering how quickly the increase would occur after eating it? My pressures do fluctuate, which seems to be normal, (though my goal is to decrease the degree of fluctuation) but maybe I have not noticed a correlation due to not thinking about it and not knowing the time lapse between eating and the IOP increase. Does anyone have any idea of how soon after eating it, we might expect to notice an increase in IOP?

Sally - thanks for the comment. Are you familiar with the water drinking test for intraocular pressure? I expect that if watermelon elevates eye pressure, it would be mostly (or nearly exclusively) to the amount of water it contains. I have not noticed any increase in eye pressure from eating watermelon. In fact, the effect I see most often after eating any food is a decrease in my intraocular pressure. I have spoken to a few other people in our self-tonometry group who have seen this effect too. We are speculating that it could be due to blood moving to the digestive organs and away from other parts of the body (such as the eyes/head). The effect is usually seen with a large meal.

Now, back to the water drinking test. You may want to perform this test yourself and carefully monitor your intraocular pressure while doing so. Then, on another day at the same time, try a similar test with some watermelon. It would be nice if you can determine approximately how much water is contained in your portion of watermelon. My guess is that watermelon will not raise your eye pressure any more than drinking the same amount of water would... but it would be great if you want to share with us how this works out for you.

To do this properly, you will need to repeat your test several times and take plenty of IOP measurements each time. In general good research like this requires several weeks of your time. Make sure you feel the potential effect of watermelon on IOP is large enough to warrant your investment of research time into this.

In my own intraocular pressure research, I no longer look at the effects of food on IOP. I spent a lot of time doing that and the effects, if any, were too small to be noticeable. I have adopted the following view, based on about a million self-tonometry measurements:

• My diet is for regenerating my optic nerves (and the rest of my body). I eat as healthy as possible for the long term benefits. I can see the effect of changes in my diet within a week or two, usually. Sometimes it takes a few months to see the positive results. Of course, I virtually never eat any junk food. If I did, I am sure I would see an immediate negative effect in my well-being. People who have dietary swings and have tracked the related IOP changes may want to offer alternative opinions here about diet and IOP! Please do.
  
• Serene Impulse is for reducing my baseline intraocular pressure over time. I generallly see the effects the following day. If I miss a day, I see higher eye pressure the next morning. As a general rule, If I do extra Serene Impulse, I see lower eye pressure the next morning. The longer I do Serene Impulse, the more benefit I see.
  
• My thoughts and emotions are for managing my intraocular pressure. The effect is instantaneous and it can overwhelm any other factors, including diet and even prescription glaucoma medications. The tools I use for this include Serene Impulse, The Work of Byron Katie, and a few other things (all mentioned here on FitEyes.com).
• My last category is for miscellaneous things. I use a neti pot and I put ghee in my eyes and I exercise and I do a lot of other things -- all are also mentioned here on FitEyes.com.
  

 Dave, I know you mentioned Kale as being a healthy green.  I found a recipe that I found quite interesting, for those times you just want something crunchy and refuse to eat any junk food. This is the recipe and it's Vegan. Guests would find this very different. It would certainly create for an interesing discussion.

   Kale Chips

3 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons agave nectar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 Medium bunch KALE (12 ounces) washed, stemmed, and chopped into 1-inch pieces.

1.  Preheat oven to 350. Place rack in center of oven.

2.  Whisk all ingredients except Kale in a small dish. Place Kale in a large bowl and toss with dressing to coat. Spread Kale onto a large baking sheet in a single layer (you may have to do this in batches).  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Toss chips with a wooden spatula and return to oven for another 7 to 8 minutes, until crispy throughout.

Hi Svenska - thanks for sharing that very creative recipe! Kale is one of my favorite foods and lately I have been adding it to everything. I look forward to trying this. Do you know what the vinegar is for? How would it be without vinegar?

 Dave,

I believe the apple cider vinegar is to give the Kale Chips that salty, sour and sweet taste.  I don't see any reason why you couldn't leave out the vinegar if you wanted to.

This post has nothing to do with vision, but it does have a lot to do with food (er, more specifically with taste).

The man who can taste words

James  Wannerton (right), an IT contractor from Blackpool, has synaesthesia, a condition which means two senses are stimulated at once. For James, 49, hearing or seeing words stimulates his sense of taste.

He says: 'When I hear a word, I actually taste it. Some words taste really nice and some really unpleasant. It's something I can't switch it off. I even dream with the sense of taste strong in my mouth.

'It can be quite distracting, like having ringing in your ears. I've always had it - one of my earliest memories is saying The Lord's Prayer during assemblies when I was four or five and getting loads of different tastes, such as bacon, entering my mouth.

'When I was younger, I would pick my friends on the basis of the way their names tasted.

'For example. I would like people called Robert because the name tasted like strawberry jam sandwiches, whereas the name Gordon made me taste dirt.

'Until my teens, I presumed everyone was the same as me. It was only when I started opening up to girlfriends that I realised I was a bit different.

'In my late teens, my mum admitted she had a far less invasive version than mine. However, she seemed to be really embarrassed talking about it, so I just dropped the subject and I presumed it was just a family trait.

'It wasn't until the mid-Nineties while holidaying in America, that I saw a TV documentary about people like me realised I had a medical condition.

'I then found out about some into synaesthesia at the Maudsley Hospital in London and contacted them ten years ago.

'A brain scan showed that the area processing taste lit up not only when I ate something, as it does for everyone, but also unusually, when I heard words and word sounds.

'When I was at university I found it quite hard to concentrate as the words of lecturers would flood my mouth with flavours.

'That's why I choose to work in information technology, a quiet profession which does not require me to talk or interact much with other people.

'This condition has also affected the types of women I go out with.

'Whereas Barbara or Helen are nice juicy flavours to me, a friend married a women whose name, Colleen, makes me nauseous. I find it hard to say or hear her name as a result.

'Food names don't necessarily bring the taste of the food. For example, the word oyster triggers the taste of chocolate.

'I have actually stopped eating out with other people because their conversation creates so many different tastes in my mouth that it ruins my enjoyment of the food.

'Sometimes my synaesthesia has proved useful  -  at school it helped me memorise things because I could remember flavours.

'A good example would be the kings and queens of England which were a list of tastes.

'I wouldn't want to be without synaesthesia, but I would like to be without it briefly, so I could understand what other people's lives are like. I imagine it wouldn't be as interesting.'

What is happening?

'People with synaesthesia find that one sense automatically triggers another,' says Dr Jamie Ward, a neuroscientist from the University of Sussex who has written a book on the subject called The Frog Who Croaked Blue.

'The condition, which is often hereditary and affects around one in 20 in the UK to some degree, is caused by extra connections in the areas of the brain which control the senses.

'MRI scans have found that people with synaesthesia develop excess connections, often in the vision area. The most common form is seeing colours when hearing letters.
'They remember things and perceive things in a different way. For example, someone with synaesthesia might think of a phone number as a series of coloured stripes because each number also stimulates a colour in their brain.'

 • UK Synaesthesia Association www.uksynaesthesia.com

See the original story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1043692/Weve-got-wires-crossed-The-bizarre-stories-people-brains-rewired-themselves.html