Is Your Cooking Oil Harming Your Eyes?

Chronic inflammation has been identified by researchers and eye doctors as a major contributing factor to the development of dry age related macular degeneration.

Dr. Michael Samuel, author of Macular Degeneration: A Complete Guide for Patients and Their Families, states:

"Modern research into age related macular degeneration has found that inflammation plays a clear role in the development of the dry form of this disease."

Causes of Inflammation

Although there is a genetic component that controls inflammation in the macula, what fats you eat or don't eat play an important role in chronic inflammation.

Some fats contribute to inflammation and are pro-inflammatory. Other fats help to reduce inflammation and are anti-inflammatory.

Fats to avoid are corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil. Trans fats and most saturated fats also contribute to inflammation.

How to Reduce Inflammation

Dr. Michael Samuel does a great job in his book of explaining how to reduce inflammation through diet and nutrition. He explains that an anti-inflammatory diet includes:

1. Eating more good fats and

2. Eating fewer bad fats

3. Eating foods that are low on the glycemic index

Cutting back on processed foods and fast foods will help you eat less of the bad fats.

Coconut Oil for Cooking

If you're like me, I need to make gradual positive changes in our food choices, so that they "stick" and become a part of our regular diet. Switching to coconut oil for cooking is one of them.

After reading, The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book: Protect Yourself and Your Family from Heart Disease, Arthritis, Diabetes, Allergies - and More, I learned how cooking with coconut oil is one way of moving towards an anti-inflammatory diet.

Substituting organic coconut oil for cooking and baking is an easy change to make that doesn't affect the taste of food and can be easily purchased at your local grocery store.

Although it is a saturated fat, coconut oil is unique and different from other saturated fats.

Find out more about coconut oil benefits and why some call it "the healthiest oil on earth" by clicking here: Coconut Oil Benefits

Thanks so much for subscribing to Macular Degeneration News.

Leslie Degner, RN, BSN

Better Health for Better Vision

www.WebRN-MacularDegneration.com

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