Another reason to pick chicken over beef
Eating chicken over beef isn’t just heart-healthy, it may also be the better choice for lower risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in people aged over 60.
After tracking the dietary and lifestyle habits of 6,700 Australians, ages 58 to 69 for four years and evaluating them for AMD 13 years later, researchers found that eating 10 or more servings of red meat per week raised the risk of AMD by 50% compared with having five or fewer servings weekly.
However, eating chicken at least three times weekly was associated with a 50% reduced risk.
That’s not to say that chicken necessarily protects against the vision-robbing condition, says lead researcher, Dr Elaine Chong, of the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne.
Instead, her research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, provides more evidence that excessive consumption of red meat can raise AMD risk, while being the first to indicate that white meat does not.
Red meat is rich in an iron compound, and other substances released during cooking, that may increase oxidative stress to the eyes, which causes the same free-radical damage that is linked to other serious diseases.
Another Australian study published in the May issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology found that regularly eating fish, nuts, olive oil and other foods high in omega-3 fatty acids appears to lower risk for AMD.
A study published in the journal Ophthalmology found that people who ate low-glycemic diets (i.e. low amounts of white bread, white rice and sweets) had lower risk of AMD as well.
Despite the adage that carrots help vision, the researchers did not find that beta carotene lowered AMD risk.
