Sunday, March 27, 2011

Eyefoods-The Foods

Green vegetables, orange vegetables, red vegetables, fruit, meat, fish.......

The list went on to include many more categories and over 300 whole foods that we researched. The goal was to determine which foods stood out with the highest content of our "target nutrients", which we had now aptly named "eye nutrients".

And the winner is......

Kale.

We had a sneaky suspicion that kale would top the list of our foods, but this project confirmed it. And this would lead to our love affair with kale - kale chips, kale salad, kale brownies....I'm sure Dr. Barb will add to this list and I'm sure she has many more ideas with kale up her sleeve. (And by the way, thank you Chris and Kris for being good sports in all of the experiments with Kale.)

As great as kale is, it isn't the only food that we found to be full of eye nutrients. Actually we found 13 categories of food that will help support eye health. This was a great discovery for us as it would allow us to create some delicious recipes and meals loaded with eye nutrients. However, before we could spend all of our time creating recipes and meal plans, we had to rate our foods. Which ones would make the cut?

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Eyefoods - The Beginning

Two optometrist friends with an idea.

To create a system to educate people on the benefits of nutrition and eye health. The system will be based on the results of scientific studies. It will be presented in a format that is visually appealing, simple to follow and user friendly.

That was the goal that we set for ourselves at our very first meeting - and we went back to it many times along the road to remind ourselves of the purpose of our "project" and to keep us on track when the road ahead of us seemed so long.

The work involved in the first few months of the Eyefoods project was not very glamourous or exciting. We each spent countless hours examining all of the research that had been published on eye disease and nutrition - and believe me, there were a lot of studies to read, and summarize! We both felt like we were back in school, giving each other homework with deadlines. It felt like it would never end,(and our husbands thought we were crazy), however, after a long summer we had met our first goal. We had summarized all of the important studies and had created a list of the most important nutrients to reduce the risk of each eye disease.

I can remember that day clearly, the day we looked at our summaries and set our "Target Nutrients". This would form the basis of The Eyefoods Plan. It was a big step for us and led us to our next task. Find the foods that contained high amounts of the target nutrients. We were excited about this part of the project because we both loved food - now it shouldn't feel like homework anymore.

Friday, March 25, 2011

The Creation of Eyefoods

By Dr. Laurie Capogna, OD

Three years ago, my good friend and colleague, Dr. Barbara Pelletier and I, decided to use our common passion about healthy living and optometry to create a tool to educate our patients and the public about what they could do to help preserve their vision. We didn't know what form this tool would take, or for that matter, exactly what information it would include. However, we did know that new studies were continually emerging regarding the connection between nutrition, lifestyle and the prevention of eye disease. We also knew that in order to pass this information along we'd have to present it in a simple, practical and fun way.

As we await the release of our new book Eyefoods: A Food Plan for Healthy Eyes, I will share with you the story behind Eyefoods. Follow our blog over the next few days to read about how Eyefoods was created.

To us, the release of our first book represents the beginning of a lifetime of Eyefoods. We have so much to share with you - we hope you will join us on our journey.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Dr. Barb's Green Smoothie

As spring comes upon us we often crave new, fresh flavors in our diets. It's a great time of year to renew good eating habits. Smoothies are an excellent and tasty way to get the well needed healthy boost that are bodies often need after a long winter. Dr. Barb's Green Smoothie will delight you with it's freshness. It is loaded with lutein and zeaxanthin, two of the most important nutrients for eye health. Give it a try today!

Get Dr. Barb's Green Smoothie Recipe HERE!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Eyefoods Website Launched!

We're excited to announce the launch of our website eyefoods  The website will answer many questions you may have regarding eye health and nutrition.  We've included mouth-watering recipes filled with the nutritious eyefoods.

www.eyefoods.com Let us know what you think.