Nutrition is an essential component of every elite athlete’s training program. A recent study from the University of Georgia suggests that athletes’ visual range can be improved by boosting their diets with colorful fruits and vegetables. The paper, which was published in Exercise and Sports Science Reviews, examines whether a group of plant compounds that form in the retina, known as macular pigments, can improve eye health and functional vision. Works.
UGA researchers Billy R. Previous studies by Hammond and Lisa Renzi-Hammond showed that eating dark green leafy vegetables or yellow and orange vegetables improved eye and brain health.
“Much of the research into macular lutein and zeaxanthin has focused on the health benefits, but from a functional perspective, high concentrations of these plant pigments improve many aspects of visual and cognitive ability. In this paper, we look at ways to improve vision.” Let’s discuss their potential. “Far distance or visual range,” said lead author Jack Hirth, a doctoral candidate in UGA’s College of Public Health.
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Visual range, or how well a person can clearly see a target at a distance, is an important asset for top athletes in almost any sport. The reason objects are harder to see and appear dimmer the farther they are from our eyes is partly due to the effect of blue light.
“From a center fielder’s perspective, if that ball is coming into the air, it will appear against a background of a bright blue sky, or against a gray background if it’s cloudy. Either way, atmospheric interference coming from The target becomes obscured. In that path of light,” Hirth said.
Many athletes already take measures to reduce the effects of blue light through eye black or blue-blocking sunglasses, but eating foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can improve the eyes’ natural ability to handle blue light. Maybe, Harth said.
When a person absorbs lutein and zeaxanthin, the compounds collect as a yellow pigment in the retina and act as a filter to prevent blue light from entering the eye. Previous work tested the visual range ability of pilots in the 1980s, and Hammond and Renzi-Hammond recently studied how macular pigment density, or how much yellow pigment is made in the retina, is linked to a number Has taken measures for eye health and functional vision tests.
“In a long series of studies, we have shown that increasing amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin in the retina and brain reduces the disability and discomfort of glare and improves chromatic contrast and visual-motor reaction time, and these compounds Supplementation appears to facilitate executive functions such as problem-solving and memory. All of these functions are especially important for athletes,” said corresponding author Billy R. Hammond, professor of psychology in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
This paper, Herth said, brings together research on these links between macular pigment and functional vision and asks what the evidence suggests about optimizing athletic performance. “We’re at the point where we can say we’ve seen visual range differences in pilots that match the differences found in modeling, and now, we’ve seen it in lab tests as well, and the future goal is to actually to bring people outside and measure their ability to see real blue haze and distance contrast in the outer environment,” Harth said.
But before you start chowing down on kale in hopes of improving your game, he cautions that everyone is different. This may mean that the way our bodies absorb and use lutein and zeaxanthin differs, and it may take some time before you notice any improvement.
Still, the evidence for overall health benefits of consuming more lutein and zeaxanthin is strong enough to warrant adding more color to your diet, say the authors. “We have data from modeling and empirical studies showing that higher macular pigment in your retina will improve your ability to see at a distance. The application for athletes is clear,” Harth said.