A sensible healthy diet will go a long way towards maintaining clear beautiful sparkling eyes for a lifetime and will significantly slow the onset of deteriorating vision and other eye problems.

You are never too young and it's never too late to start a healthy dietary regime to help protect your eyes from risk.

There are many people who have good eyesight into their eighties and beyond. Ageing does not automatically mean that your eyesight will diminish but as ageing progresses changes can occur that may weaken the ability to see.

This can occur as early as the teen years if not earlier.

Sensible precautions to avoid eye strain by spending too long staring at a computer screen, reading small print in bad light, avoiding smoky ill ventilated atmospheres and so on are obvious.

What is less well known is the importance of diet to protect the eyes. The right food for your eyes is essential for optimum eye health.

Fish Oil may help to protect and promote healthy retinal function and has been found to assist in preventing the onset of Macular Degeneration, the leading cause of blindness.

Cod liver oil or fish oil capsules taken daily as a regular addition to your diet is probably the least likely to be overlooked.

Salmon, trout, herrings and any other tasty oily fish can make an occasional and enjoyable meal to supplement the capsules.

Fresh Vegetables and Fruit are very important in helping to maintain effective vision health. Green leafy vegetables contain carotenoides, principally Beta-carotene and Lutein.

Both are antioxidants and are found in spinach, kale,brussel sprouts, broccoli, collard greens, and similar. Egg Yolks also contain beneficial carotenoids.

Berries. Dark berries, such as blackberries blueberries, blackcurrants,cranberries,bilberries will have a beneficial effect by stregthening the capilleries that carry nutrients to the eyes.

Avoid the fats found in many processed and baked foods These will include margerines,fried foods, doughnuts, cookies, pastries, french fries, and biscuits.

These non beneficial fats, known as Trans Fat should not be confused with Omega-3 fatty acids found in Salmon, Trout, Tuna and other oily fish which can decrease the risk of eye disease.

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a slow but progressive degeneration of central vision for which there is arguably no cure. Risk factors for AMD include genetic inheritance, smoking, high blood pressure or simply advancing age.

It is the most common cause of blindness. Many sufferers of AMD or who are at risk of the disease have no factors that can they can control to mitigate or avoid the onset of the disease with the possible exception of nutrition.

Studies have shown that individuals with the highest consumption of dark leaved green vegetables rich in carotenoids, such as raw spinach or kale had a significantly lower chance of developing AMD than those who ate these foods the least.

High levels of antioxidant vitamins and zinc can also be effective in lowering the risk of developing the disease and can also slow its progression.

There is a school of thought that the bilberry or blueberry can prevent or even reverse AMD and sufferers are advised to investigate this as a possible treatment. These studies clearly show the importance of nutrition in prevention and slowing the development of AMD.

Do obtain qualified medical advice before taking high dose nutritional supplements for the control of AMD as there may be other risk factors, not associated with eye care, to take into account. This is particularly important for smoker