In a recent study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers found that people who ate a diet high in red and processed meat, fried food, refined grains, and high-fat dairy were three times more likely to develop an eye disease that damages the retina and affects central vision.
The condition is called late-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The research is from the University at Buffalo. One author is Shruti Dighe.
AMD is an irreversible condition that affects a person’s central vision, taking away their ability to drive, among other common daily activities.
Treatment for late, neovascular AMD is invasive and expensive, and there is no treatment for geographic atrophy, the other form of late AMD that also causes vision loss.
In the study, the team found that a Western dietary pattern, one defined as high in consumption of red and processed meat, fried food, refined grains, and high-fat dairy, may be a risk factor for developing late AMD.
They studied the occurrence of early and late AMD over approximately 18 years of follow-up among participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.
They used data on 66 different foods that participants self-reported consuming between 1987 and 1995 and identified two diet patterns in this cohort — Western and healthy — that best explained the greatest variation between diets.
They found that people who had no AMD or early AMD and reported frequently consuming unhealthy foods were more likely to develop the late-stage disease approximately 18 years later.
However, a Western diet was not linked to the development of early AMD. Early AMD is asymptomatic, meaning that people often don’t know that they have it.
To catch it, a physician would have to review a photo of the person’s retina, looking for pigmentary changes and development of drusen, or yellow deposits made up of lipids.
With early AMD, there could be either atrophy or a buildup of new blood vessels in the part of the eye known as the macula.
But not everyone who has early AMD progresses to the more debilitating late stage.
To date, most research has been conducted on specific nutrients — such as high-dose antioxidants — that seems to have a protective effect.
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