We have another health benefit to add to the list of reasons to drink healthy organic coffee and even regular coffee. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published an article showing that food antioxidants help prevent cataracts.
Main Outcomes and Measures: Information on incident age-related cataract diagnosis and extraction was collected through linkage to registers in the study area.
Results: There were 4309 incident cases of age-related cataracts during the mean 7.7 years of follow-up (234 371 person-years). The multivariable rate ratio in the highest quintile of the TAC of the diet compared with the lowest was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.79-0.96; P for trend = .03). The main contributors to dietary TAC in the study population were fruit and vegetables (44.3%), whole grains (17.0%), and coffee (15.1%).
That’s right. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains and coffee all contain antioxidants that help reduce the incidence of age related cataracts. Although there are foods with higher antioxidant concentration than coffee, the amount of coffee that people consume is such that most people derive the most antioxidants in their diets from coffee. So, you can reduce the risk of age-related cataracts with coffee.
What Are Cataracts?
The Mayo Clinic web site defines cataracts.
A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens of your eye. For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is a bit like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window.
Clouded vision caused by cataracts can make it more difficult to read, drive a car (especially at night) or see the expression on a friend’s face.
Most cataracts develop slowly and don’t disturb your eyesight early on. But with time, cataracts will eventually interfere with your vision.
Cataracts from old age show up in a person’s 70’s and 80’s. If you reduce your risk of age-related cataracts with coffee you may be looking at your 80’s and 90’s as when you need to be concerned.
Why Does This Work?
Why can you reduce the risk of age-related cataracts with coffee and other high anti-oxidants foods and beverages? First of all what are antioxidants? The Nutrition Source at the Harvard School of Public Health defines antioxidants.
The body’s trillion or so cells face formidable threats, from lack of food to infection with a virus. Another constant threat comes from nasty chemicals called free radicals. They are capable of damaging cells and genetic material. The body generates free radicals as the inevitable byproducts of turning food into energy. Others are in the food you eat and the air you breathe. Some are generated by sunlight’s action on the skin and eyes.
Free radicals come in many shapes, sizes, and chemical configurations. What they all share is a voracious appetite for electrons, stealing them from any nearby substances that will yield them. This electron theft can radically alter the “loser’s” structure or function. Free radical damage can change the instructions coded in a strand of DNA. It can make a circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL, sometimes called bad cholesterol) molecule more likely to get trapped in an artery wall. Or it can alter a cell’s membrane, changing the flow of what enters the cell and what leaves it.
We aren’t defenseless against free radicals. The body, long used to this relentless attack, makes scads of molecules that quench free radicals as surely as water douses fire. We also extract free-radical fighters from food. These defenders are often lumped together as “antioxidants.” They work by generously giving electrons to free radicals without turning into electron-scavenging substances themselves.
The point of all this is that antioxidants defend us against the degrading effects of free radicals and in general promote good health.
More than Just Protection against Cataracts
Coffee and especially good organic coffee offer more than reduction of the risk of age-related cataracts. Consistent coffee consumption reduces the risk of Type II Diabetes, various forms of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression and the risk of suicide. Enjoy your morning coffee and benefit from those healthy antioxidants as well.