High carbohydrates and cataracts

April 8, 10:18 AMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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 According to the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, in a July 2005 news report titled, "High Carbs May Boost Cataract Risk," High carbohydrate diets were linked with a greater risk of cataracts in a study of 417 women age 53 to 73. New details about the association between high carbohydrates and cataract risk have emerged from a study reported in the June 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (volume 81, pages 1411-1416). 

Women who ate an average of 200 to 268 grams of carbohydrates each day were more than twice as likely to develop cortical cataracts, than women whose meals provided between 101 and 185 grams by day's end. That's according to the ARS-funded scientists at the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA.

The recommended daily allowance for carbohydrates for adults and children is 130 grams. Researchers analyzed eye exam results and 14 years' worth of food records collected from 417 women, aged 53 to 73. The women, participants in the nationwide Nurses' Health Study, did not have a history of cataracts but were recently diagnosed with the disease. Cataracts are a major cause of blindness worldwide and afflict an estimated 20 million Americans. Scientists don't know what links high-carbohydrate intake to increased cataract risk.

One possiblity is that increased exposure to glucose, a breakdown product of carbohydrates, might damage our eyes' lenses. Read the entire July 2005 news report, High Carbs May Boost Cataract Risk, at the US Department of Agriculture’s Food & Nutrition Research Briefs site.