Eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables to protect your eyes and get lots of vitamin C.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Over the years, researchers have hypothesized that vitamin C can help save vision by reducing the risk of cataracts as people age. However, a recent Swedish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that taking vitamin C supplements might actually lead to vision problems.

THE DETAILS: Researchers looked at nearly 25,000 women between the ages of 49 and 83 over the course of about eight years to gain insight into how vitamin C could affect cataract risk. They asked the women about supplement use, and divided the supplement users into those who took vitamin C supplements containing about 1,000 milligrams (mg) of the vitamin, and those who took multivitamins that contained about 60 mg of vitamin C. Researchers found that women who took vitamin C supplements faced a 25 percent higher risk of age-related cataracts than women who did not use the supplements. Those who took the lower dose of C in multivitamin form did not see an increased risk. However, researchers also found that women who were using hormone replacement therapy, were age 65 or older, or were using corticosteroids faced an even higher risk of developing cataracts when also taking 1,000-mg vitamin C supplements.