Nutrition is an important part of the training program of every top athlete. And now, a new study from researchers at the University of Georgia suggests that supplementing athletes’ diets with colorful fruits and vegetables could improve their visual range.
The article, which was published in Exercise and Sports Science Reviewsinvestigates how a group of plant compounds that accumulate in the retina, known as macular pigments, work to improve eye health and functional vision.
Previous studies conducted by UGA researchers Billy R. Hammond and Lisa Renzi-Hammond have shown that eating foods such as dark leafy greens or yellow and orange vegetables, which contain high levels of the plant compounds lutein and zeaxanthin, improve eye and brain health. improves.
“Much research on macular lutein and zeaxanthin has focused on health benefits, but from a functional perspective, higher concentrations of these plant pigments improve many aspects of visual and cognitive ability. In this article we discuss their ability to improve vision in far distance or visual range,” said lead author Jack Harth, a doctoral candidate at UGA’s College of Public Health.
Visual range, or how well someone can see a target clearly over a distance, is critical for elite athletes in virtually every sport.
The reason why objects become harder to see and appear fainter the further away they are from our eyes is partly due to the effects of blue light.
“From a midfielder’s perspective, as the ball goes into the air, it will be seen against a backdrop of a clear blue sky, or against a gray background if it is a cloudy day. Either way, the goal is obscured by atmospheric interference.” in that path of light,” Harth said.
Many athletes already take steps to reduce the impact of blue light by wearing black or blue blocker sunglasses, but eating more foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can enhance the eye’s natural ability to deal with blue light exposure. to improve, said Harth.
When a person absorbs lutein and zeaxanthin, the compounds collect as yellow pigments in the retina and act as a filter to block blue light from entering the eye.
Previous research into pilot vision was conducted in the 1980s, and Hammond and Renzi-Hammond have more recently investigated how macular pigment density, or the amount of yellow pigment built up in the retina, is related with a number of factors. of eye health measures 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 reduce glare and discomfort and improve chromatic contrast and visual-motor reaction time, and replenishing these compounds facilitates executive functions like solving problems.” and memory. All of these tasks are particularly important for athletes,” said corresponding author Billy R. Hammond, professor of psychology in the Behavior and Brain Sciences Program at UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
This article, Harth said, brings the research into these links between macular pigment and functional vision up to date and questions what the evidence suggests about optimizing athletic performance.
“We are at a point where we can say that we have seen visual range differences in pilots that match the differences found in the modeling, and now we have also seen it in laboratory testing, and a future goal would be to to actually take people outside and to measure their ability to see contrast over distance through true blue haze and in outdoor environments,” Harth said.
But before you start eating kale in hopes of improving your game, he warns that everyone is different. That could mean that the way our bodies absorb and use lutein and zeaxanthin varies, and it may take a while before you notice any improvement, if at all.
Still, the evidence of the overall health benefits of consuming more lutein and zeaxanthin is reason enough to add more color to your diet, the authors say.
“We have data from modeling and empirical studies showing that higher macular pigment in your retina will improve your ability to see over distance. The application for athletes is clear,” Harth said.
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