USA: High Level of Carbohydrates In Diet May Cause Cataracts

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), December 3, 2007: People who eat lots of high glycemic index foods may be increasing their risk of developing a cataract, a clouding of the lens of the eye, according to research reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Glycemic index, or GI, refers to how rapidly a food causes blood sugar to rise. High-GI foods, like white bread and potatoes, tend to spur a quick surge in blood sugar, while low-GI foods, such as lentils, soybeans, yogurt and many high-fibre grains, create a more gradual increase in blood sugar. The quantity and quality of carbohydrates in the diet may play a role in cataract formation, Dr Paul Mitchell, from Westmead Hospital, New South Wales, and colleagues note in their report. The researchers examined the association between dietary carbohydrates and the occurrence of cataract in 933 people who were at least 49 years of age at the outset and were followed for up to 10 years. What the study showed After accounting for age, gender, diabetes, and other factors that might influence the results, each standard deviation increase in dietary GI was associated with a 19 percent increase in the risk of cataract. People with the highest GI diets were 77 percent more likely to develop a cataract than people with the lowest GI diets. "Because carbohydrate foods represent the main dietary component for humans and cataract entails such a significant health and economic burden, further studies to clarify whether aspects of dietary carbohydrate intake may affect the risk of cataract development are warranted," Mitchell and his associates conclude. Source: Reuters Health Related News Fast-acting carbohydrates may make you blind NEW YORK (ScienceDaily), December 2, 2007: Addicted to fast-carb diets like bread, rice, potatoes and pasta? It's time to change your food habit, otherwise you might end up losing your eyesight. Researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found that diets rich in carbohydrates cause blood sugar levels to rise or fall rapidly which raises the risk for central vision loss with ageing, the ScienceDaily reported. The study was led by Chung-Jung Chiu with Allen Taylor, both at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Centre on Aging (HNRCA) in Boston, Mass. The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing dietary intake and other data from over 4,000 men and women aged between 55 and 80 participating in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Diets high in carbohydrates that are quickly digested and absorbed, resulting in a rapid rise in blood sugar levels, are considered high-glycemic-index diets while carbohydrates leading to a more gradual rise and fall in blood sugar levels comprise low-glycemic-index diets. The team found central vision loss - one of the first signs of age-related muscular degeneration - in those people whose diets included fast-carbs. Consuming a diet high in fast carbs is also suspected of being involved in the vision loss that sometimes occurs in people with diabetes. The researchers found that the type of damage to eye tissue produced by fast carbs to be similar in both AMD and diabetic eye disease. "While it's too soon to recommend dietary slow carbs as a preventive strategy for AMD, replacing fast carbs with whole grains may soon prove to be an early dietary intervention to slow its progression," the researchers said. Their findings have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.