July 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Discover how ocular nutrition protects vision, fights eye disease, and supports brain health with expert-backed tips from Dr. Rani Banik.
In this special episode of The Eye-Q Podcast, I’m sharing a conversation originally recorded during The Eye Health Summit, where I was interviewed by my colleague, Dr. Deep Parikh. We explored how nutrition plays a vital role in protecting and enhancing vision, from reducing the risk of age-related eye disease to supporting brain health. I broke down the most important nutrients for your eyes, shared my top food and supplement tips, and explained how simple dietary choices can make a powerful difference when it comes to preserving your sight for the long term.
I’m Dr. Rani Banik, a board-certified neuro-ophthalmologist and a passionate advocate for integrative eye care. Through my clinical practice, writing, and public education, I work to bridge the gap between nutritional science and vision health. My mission is to empower you with simple, evidence-based tools to protect your eyesight and enhance your quality of life—one bite at a time.
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Shop: https://shop.rudranibanikmd.com/collections/all
Website: https://www.drranibanik.com/
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EnVisionHealthNYC/?_rdc=1&_rdr#
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Carrots are absolutely wonderfulfoods for your eyes.
But the reason why I called the book Beyond Carrots is because
there is this myth out there, this misconception that if you
just eat a bunch of carrots every day or every week, that
you will have 2020 vision. People just automatically assume
that, OK, if I just eat this onefood, I'll be fine.
(00:22):
I don't have to worry about my eyes.
But that's not the case. Carrots, yes, they're great
foods because they provide beta carotene.
Beta carotene gives carrots their beautiful orange color,
but it's just one of the many nutrients her eyes need to stay
healthy. So don't just eat your carrots,
eat them plus other foods as well.
Welcome to the IQ podcast, hosted by Doctor Ronnie Banach,
(00:46):
America's Integrated neuro ophthalmologist.
Doctor Bannock, it's a pleasure to have this opportunity to
interview you for a change. Now you've authored 3 books, the
first one of course being BeyondCarrots, Best Foods for Eye
Health from A-Z and then of course Dr. Ronnie's Visionary
Kitchen and Doctor Ronnie's Plant Based Visionary Kitchen.
(01:08):
Can you share, just as an introduction, a little bit about
what sparked your passion for ocular nutrition and how your
journey got started? Absolutely.
I'd be happy to. And first of all, thank you so
much for interviewing me. And when it comes to nutrition,
I really, my interest really came about because of the health
issue that I was having and how nutrition really changed the
(01:29):
trajectory of my own health journey.
So I have to disclose this. When I was younger, I used to
eat very poorly. I grew up living on junk food.
Basically. That's what we had in the house.
That's what I would eat even when I was in my 20s, early 30s,
late 30s, I just eat junk food most of the time.
I lived off of pizza and ice cream and diet soda.
(01:50):
That was my, my, those were the three staples in my diet.
And what happened was in my early 40s, I developed really
bad migraine. And so basically I would have
migraine attacks pretty often and it became more and more
frequent to the point where it was happening every single day.
So if any of you have had migraine, you know that it's not
fun having a migraine. It's quite debilitating
(02:13):
actually. And I couldn't shake it.
I had been to, I live in New York City, I'd been to some of
the top headache doctors and they kept prescribing me
medication after medication. Nothing was working.
So I tried this for two or threeyears and then I knew I had to
find a different approach. And then one of my colleagues
suggested that I do something called an elimination diet.
(02:35):
And I never had even heard of what an elimination diet was.
What's basically where you remove pro inflammatory foods
from your diet and replace it with more healthy Whole Foods
instead. So I was fascinated and I said,
OK, I'm going to look into this.And when I what I realized was
that there were so many foods that I was eating that were pro
inflammatory, that were processed foods that had refined
(02:58):
sugars, just the worst types of foods that you can imagine.
It's basically what I was eatingfor years and decades.
So once they came to that realization that, Oh my
goodness, maybe my own dietary choices were contributing to my
problem, I started to address that and I removed a lot of
those foods and I they replace them with more fruits and
vegetables and whole grains and less processed foods.
(03:21):
And that's when I started to getbetter.
So this is really a big turning point in my life and my career
when I realized the power of nutrition for my own health
issue. And I started to use the same
principles for a lot of my migraine patients, and I started
to use them a lot for my patients with ocular disease.
And I saw a lot of the incredible results that my
(03:42):
patients got by changing their diet.
And then I knew that I had to get this message out to the
world. So that's how it all came about,
from a personal health journey that's now become my passion and
my mission in life. So doctor panic, I love that
honest response and a little bitabout your journey.
And I just want to highlight twothings based off of that.
And we're medical doctors, we'rephysicians.
(04:05):
And a lot of the public has this, has this preconceived
notion that because you're a doctor, you're probably eating
healthy and you're probably on top of that, your health.
And clearly a lot of doctors, they're so busy, they're not
really paying attention to theirnutrition.
They're not really, they're eating fast, quick foods and the
(04:26):
processed foods. And then the other part I want
to highlight is, is that your journey into nutrition stem from
a, from something that you went through personally.
And it wasn't, even though we'remedical doctors, there's not a
lot of attention given to nutrition during our training,
if any. We learned a lot about
biochemistry. We learned a lot about the Krebs
(04:46):
cycle. But in medical school and
residency training, there's not a lot of focus on on nutrition.
Is that your experience too? Absolutely.
And when I think back to my medical school training, I can
remember about four hours based that we got nutrition education,
We learned about the macro nutrients, what are what is a
fat, what is a protein, what is a carbohydrate?
(05:08):
What is some nutritional deficiencies that can happen.
For example, vitamin C deficiency can make the scurvy.
That was about it. And just after medical school,
even during internship, residency, fellowship, we really
never got proper education aboutnutrition, only the extremes
when someone is severely deficient, what can happen?
(05:28):
But we never really learned about making healthy choices,
whether it be for our eyes or our brain or our heart or the
rest of our. We never really learned that.
So I really hope that the the training that we get is now
slowly shifting to include some of those topics.
And I know that a lot of medicalschools are now offering more
(05:48):
education to their students, which I'm really excited about.
Yeah. I think that has a big role.
I think a lot of a lot of ailments it could be maybe
prevented or mitigated. And I think I think more
attention on nutrition is, is definitely good for all of us.
And for the viewers that might be a little new to the concept
of ocular nutrition specificallyand how it relates to the eyes.
(06:10):
Can you tell us about that in simple terms and the and why
it's so important? Absolutely.
As many of us, we first of all, we take our eyes for granted.
We wake up in the morning expecting that we'll be able to
see clearly, and we don't reallythink about all the inner
workings of the eye. The eye is such a complex organ.
It's got over 40 different partsthat work together.
(06:33):
It's got over 200 different celltypes.
And all of those different partsand cell types have a lot of
different nutritional needs. And the eye is very highly
metabolic, meaning that it has avery high metabolic rate.
It processes light energy, it turns over cells constantly.
And in order to do that, we needa wide diverse nutrient intake.
(06:56):
And so ideally you want to get that those nutrients from food,
food. And sometimes when you're not
able to supply your eyes with that variety of nutrients from
food, it is important to supplement as well.
So my take home message here to try to put this in a nutshell is
the eye is really complex. It has a lot of metabolic
demands and the best way to support that is through
(07:18):
nutrition and through diversity in your nutrition.
For someone who's listening saysthis makes sense to me.
What would you highlight from all your research in the books
you've written? What's a good What are good
things to include into our diet that will benefit our eyes?
You know, that's a great question, Doctor Parikh.
So in my book, Beyond Carrots, Igo through, OK, these are the 30
(07:40):
nutrients our eyes need. So it's not just one or two
nutrients. Again, lots of nutrients, but
it's hard to remember what they all are.
So then I break it down into three main classes of nutrients
that you really should be mindful.
Be sure to get these in your diet on a daily basis.
So what are these three main classes?
(08:00):
First, there are macular carotenoids, and you may have
heard of them. They have fancy names.
They're called lutein, Xiazanthan, mesozozanthan.
But what these nutrients are, they're cousins to beta
carotene, they're cousins to vitamin A, and they're essential
for the health of our retina. They get deposited into the back
(08:21):
of the eye in the macula, which is responsible for our 2020
vision. So if you don't have adequate
supply of these nutrients, we can't protect the eye against
various types of what we call toxins or oxidative stress or
photo oxidative stress. So for example, when light comes
into the eye, it can cause potential damage to the retina
(08:43):
and these nutrients protect against that damage.
So you can think of them as yourinternal sunglasses or internal
blue blockers. That's one way to think of them.
And then the next nutrient class, so those are the macular
carotenoids. The next nutrient class would
would be Omega fatty acids. And many of us have heard of the
(09:05):
omegas, particularly Omega threes, EPADHA.
We've heard about them for our brain health, for heart health,
for our immune system, for our skin health.
But they are also really important for our eye health,
specifically DHA, which is 1 type of omega-3.
If we think about the cells in the retina that capture light,
(09:25):
these cells are called photoreceptors and the
structural backbone of these photoreceptors is DHA.
And here's an interesting fun fact.
The highest concentration of DHAin the body is in our retinal
photoreceptors. So we need a great constant
supply of DHA because our bodiescan't make DHA.
(09:45):
We need it from diet and or supplements to provide our
retinal photoreceptors with the key nutrients so they can turn
over and process light energy. So again, that's the second
class would be the omega-3 fattyacids, EPA and then the third
class would be nutrients that fall into plant compounds, which
we call bioflavonoids. And these compounds are found
(10:09):
usually in very colorful plants.And what they do in the plants
is that they protect the plant against disease, they protect
the plant against oxidative stress, against infection,
against inflammation. So they're at the plants natural
defense mechanisms and they're very potent antioxidants.
So when we ingest these types ofplants and their nutrients,
(10:32):
those benefits get conferred to our bodies.
So they help us protect against again, oxidative stress, which
is a key driver of any kind of eye disease, whether that be
macular degeneration or glaucomaor cataract.
The base, the base problem or the root causes really oxidative
stress. So again, these plant compounds
(10:52):
that we call bioflavonoids and some examples would be cursatin,
which is found in certain types of colorful foods like red
onions and berries, many other apples for example, many common
foods have cursatin. Also anthocyanins, I know these
are long fancy terms, but anthocyanins are found in
(11:13):
berries. So berries are have lots of
bioflavonoids, ulcer curcumin, which is found in the spice
turmeric or turmeric, which we've talked about before.
That's also an example of a bioflavonoid.
So that's an A big overview of ocular nutrition.
So get these three classes and again, macular carotenoids,
omega-3 fatty acids, and bioflavonoids and rotate through
(11:36):
these foods to make sure that your eyes are getting the
nutrients that they need. Doctor Ronnie, thank you for
that, that, that thorough, thorough response.
And so if I could just summarizefor the audience.
So eyes are very metabolically active.
There's these three classes of nutrients that you really
recommend because of how metabolically active and how
(11:56):
hard our eyes work from morning to night.
To break it down even simpler, are there foods, specific foods?
I know you mentioned a couple ofthem, but is there one magic
thing I can eat every day or ourviewers can eat every day?
Whether it's whatever you say, avocado, one thing we should
include in our diet that might have all three of these, or tell
(12:17):
us a little bit about the specific foods we can or should
incorporate. There is no one magic food that
you should include in your diet because there are so many foods
that can be beneficial. But if I had to choose one
single food or maybe a group of foods, I would say leafy greens,
and that includes foods like spinach, kale.
(12:38):
I would say kale is #1 if you'regoing to choose one food, that
would be your number one magic food or super food for your
eyes. But spinach, kale, any kind of
greens, whether they're collard greens, dandelion greens,
mustard greens, any kind of green leafy vegetables will have
the macular carotenoids. So they will provide you with
those nutrients to protect your retina.
They do have a lower amount of Omega fatty acids.
(13:01):
They do have some Omega threes in them and the colorful part
will provide you some of the bioflavonoids.
Not a lot of them, but some of them.
So again, if you're going to choose that one superfood, it
would be leafy greens. I think that's great and I think
leafy greens incorporates a widevariety there.
So you have because I've definitely kale, although it's
(13:23):
known for its wonderful nutritional value, I have
patients that either love kale or hate kale, and it seems kale
seems very. As a certain taste and for some
people it's too bitter. It's just too bitter to stomach.
So the good news is you have options.
And I'll, I want to highlight another leafy green that
oftentimes we don't think about it would be rainbow charred.
(13:46):
And if you've ever seen rainbow chart, yes, it's green, its
leaves are green, but the stem is this beautiful like it, it's
actually multi colored. It's got some orange and yellow
and red in there. So if you're going to choose a
leafy green, maybe try that one out because it's, I believe it's
slightly less, at least to my palate, it's a little bit less
bitter than kale. And it's got some of those other
(14:09):
beautiful colors in it to give you those other nutrients.
So Doctor Ronnie, for our patients, our viewers that are
listening that maybe right now have a diet like you used to,
for example, like you mentioned with ice cream being a staple,
etcetera, etcetera. And they're new to greens and
they want to they see the benefits potentially.
And so the stem is something they can eat also and the stem
(14:30):
also has nutritional value. Is that correct?
Yes, yes. And I'll give you an example.
So let's take broccoli, right? Most of us when we think of
broccoli, eating broccoli, we eat the florets like the top
part of the plant, but actually,so the broccoli has many great
values it as it actually has. I don't want to use too many
scientific terms here, but thereis one compound called
(14:53):
glucosinolate, which is a detoxifying nutrient.
So broccoli has a very high concentration of this nutrient,
helps us to detoxify and it's present in the florets, but it's
also present in the stem and also the leaves of the plant.
So if somehow you can incorporate into your, however
(15:13):
you prepare your produce, if youcan incorporate the stem, steam
it, break it up into pieces, maybe blend it, have some of the
leaves in there as well. Try to incorporate the whole
plant into your diet, not just the fluoresce which we typically
think of. Yeah.
And if that's super informative for some patients where maybe
they don't like the florets, butat least if even if they eat the
(15:35):
stems and that there's benefit to that.
You can even make a vegetable stock.
Let's say you're many people make like a chicken stock or
beef stock, but you can even make like a vegetable stock and
put the stems in there with the leaves.
Let it boil for some time with other, maybe a little bit of
herbs and spices as well, and use that as a base for your
soups or other types of foods that you make.
(15:56):
There's lots of ways to be creative using the whole plant.
That's great. What about bell Peppers are
there? That's a favorite of mine
because I find them so flavorful.
And but you know, does that havea lot of a lot of these
beneficial compounds as well? What if someone just isn't a fan
of green leafy vegetables? Are there other alternatives and
options? Absolutely.
(16:18):
And this is actually what I talkabout in my first book, Beyond
Carrots, Best Foods for Eye Health A-Z, because I do go
through, it's not just one particular food or group you
should be eating. There's a lot of options.
If you don't like leafy greens, bell Peppers are a great
alternative, especially a lot ofpeople think about, oh, I'm
going to have some green bell Peppers.
(16:38):
That's probably the most commonly available.
But in reality, if you have yourchoice, opt for the orange and
the yellow ones. And the reason I say this is
because the color of the orange and the yellow bell Peppers.
The reason it's that color is because it's very high in the
macular carotenoids. Lutein and ziazanthin are
(16:59):
orange, orange, yellow pigments.And those bell Peppers will
provide you with a good concentration of that, maybe not
as high as kale or spinach, but it's pretty high.
So that would be a good option. And then if you think about
other yellow and orange foods, for example, corn, corn is most,
they're different varieties of corn, but the most common
(17:20):
variety is yellow. And it's yellow because of high
concentrations of lutein and xiazanthan.
And actually the scientific namefor corn is xia maze, and that's
where the word xiazanthan came from.
And then if you eat eggs, the beautiful yolk, the orange
yellow color of the yolk in eggsis from is because of high cost
(17:42):
concentrations of lutein in zeozanthin.
So there are many ways to get these nutrients and you don't
have to stick to just one particular food or food group.
I really appreciate you breakingsome of this down for us a
little bit because nutrition gets very complicated because it
seems every few years we hear something different, right?
So 15 years ago, oh, don't eat the yolk, right?
(18:05):
Stay away from the yolk because it's bad for you.
Just eat the egg whites, etcetera.
But now in the last few years, I'm reading a lot and learning a
lot about potential benefits of the like you mentioned.
And I think that's what makes nutrition so, so difficult is
we're always learning more and more about our foods that we're
eating. Yeah, absolutely.
(18:27):
And I want to just echo what yousaid about science always
changing. There are those studies from
1015 years ago that said if you eat too many eggs, your
cholesterol is going to go high and stay away from eggs if you
have heart issues, etcetera, cholesterol issues.
But now a lot of those studies have been completely refuted.
You know what we used to believe, what we were taught is
(18:49):
no longer the case. And so it is important to try to
stay for us as providers, to tryto stay aware of all of these
sometimes conflicting studies. But the studies have shown that
even if you eat like some peoplecan eat two or three eggs a day
and not have their cholesterol being affected.
Talk to your doctor, get some personalized advice, but try to
(19:10):
include some of these foods. Even though they may have been
labeled as unhealthy in the past.
Maybe they're not so unhealthy in moderate amounts and not high
quantities, but in moderate amounts they should be OK.
And then the question of that everyone is wondering, you
mentioned yellow and orange foods, carrots, carrots are
still good. Are we OK to Are we OK with
(19:31):
carrots? Yeah, so carrots are absolutely
wonderful foods for your eyes. But the reason why I called the
book Beyond Carrots is because there is this myth out there,
this misconception that if you just eat a bunch of carrots
every day or every week, that you will have 2020 vision.
(19:51):
People just automatically assumethat OK, if I just eat this one
food, I'll be fine, I don't haveto worry about my eyes.
But that's not the case. Carrots, yes, they're great
foods because they provide beta carotene.
Beta carotene gives carrots their beautiful orange color,
but it's just one of the many nutrients their eyes need to
stay healthy. So don't just eat your carrots,
(20:12):
eat them plus other foods as well.
You might have heard that eatingcarrots is good for your eyes,
but what if we told you that there are more foods that can do
wonders for your vision? Introducing Beyond Carrots Best
foods for eye Health A-Z, the new book by Doctor Rudrani
Bannick and D. In this eye opening book, Doctor
Bannick highlights over 30 nutrients necessary for healthy
(20:33):
vision and shares 40 delicious foods richest in those
nutrients. Hi, I'm Doctor Odrani Thanik,
and I'm here to tell you there'sso much more to eye health than
just carrots and just beta carotene.
In Beyond Carrots, you'll learn how to keep your vision healthy
and vibrant by using the power of nutrition.
Imagine being able to see the world clearly in all its beauty
(20:54):
for years to come. To keep your vision healthy and
strong, you need to go beyond carrots.
Get your copy today of Beyond Carrots Best Foods for Eye
Health A-Z available on Amazon. Take the first step towards
healthy to your vision and protect your precious eyesight
for the years ahead. What one question I have is how
much, right? So is it is it better to eat a
(21:16):
little bit of this stuff, incorporate it, add it to your
diet a little bit every day or better to just maybe eat one big
salad once a week? What?
How should we aim to incorporatethese foods and how much do we
need to eat? Is it that I have to eat kale
all day to protect my eyes? Or tell us a little bit about
(21:37):
how do I have to quit my job andonly eat kale and carrots?
Or like, tell us a little bit about how the practicality of
this. Yeah, there's such an important
question, Doctor Parikh. And no, you do not have to quit
your job just so you can eat foryour eye.
Please do not quit your job for this.
So let me try to simplify it a little bit.
So our eyes again need a lot of nutrients and sometimes my
(22:00):
patients when I tell them how much they need to eat and it
should be every day, they cringebecause they're not doing this.
And I also would have cringed before when I was eating my
unhealthy diet. But try to strive for three to
five cups of colorful fruits andveggies in your diet every
single day. So not once a week, not two or
(22:22):
three times a week, every day, try to have three to five cups.
And again, it's a diversity. So you know, leafy greens are
important. So let's say you're going to
have three cups of your favoriteleafy green, whatever it is,
spinach, kale, collard greens, etcetera. 3 cups of that, One
Cup of or half a cup to 1 cup ofberries.
(22:44):
Blueberries are my favorite for eye health and brain health.
But you can have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, goji
berries. Mix it up with your berries.
So 3 cups of leafy greens, 1 cupof berries, and the other can be
your choice. Maybe you're having some bell
Peppers, maybe you're having some fruits, apples, for
example. Grapes, especially the darker
(23:05):
colored grapes like red grapes, dark purple grapes, black
grapes, black grapes are delicious, by the way.
Include some of those or have some nuts and seeds.
Nuts and seeds also count. So whether you're having maybe
1/4 cup of pistachios or almondsor cashews, maybe some seeds,
hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds.
(23:27):
So try, I just strive for three to five cups and I know
initially a lot of people will recoil and say, Oh my goodness,
I barely have a leaf of lettuce on my sandwich.
That's my like intake of fruits and veggies every day or these
types of foods. But really be mindful of it.
And once you start thinking about it, you'll discover that
there are lots of ways you can incorporate these foods.
(23:48):
Maybe have a snack pack, like a little container of some nuts
and just have that as a snack and that counts as well.
You mentioned nutrition, and thetopic we're talking about really
is ocular nutrition. But in listening to what you
said, you brought up that blueberries may be good for the
eyes and also may be good for the brain.
I think you said yes. Tell us a little bit about that
(24:11):
because and again, some of the things you mentioned like
omega-3 fatty acids, I know thatthe cardiologists tend to like
that there's benefits to the heart from Omega threes.
And it seems like there's a lot of overlap in in, in that
nutrients that you mentioned andthat they're not just good for
the eyes, but they may be beneficial for brain health,
preventing dementia or Alzheimer's, for example.
(24:32):
Can you shed some light on on that overlap?
Absolutely. And you're so right, Doctor
Parikh, in your point that when you're eating mindfully for your
eyes, you're benefiting not justyour vision, you're betting
benefiting your whole body because there's so much overlap
in these nutrients. What they can do for us, how
they can fight inflammation and oxidative stress and keep us
(24:53):
healthy. So yes, you're eating specific
things for your eyes, like the leafy greens or the berries or
the omegas, but they're benefiting everything.
And you get a 2 for one or threefor one or four for one with
those choices. And I'll just add a little bit
about the berries because there has been a lot of research
that's been published recently in the past five years or so
(25:15):
about the cognitive benefits of berries.
So studies have shown that if you have half a cup of
blueberries a day, half a cup, that you can reduce the risk of
cognitive decline in dementia. So a simple change in your
nutrition can again, not just benefit your vision, they are
benefiting your overall brain health and it can slow cognitive
(25:38):
decline. So it's something I recommend
for everyone. Include those berries in your
diet. And if you don't like
blueberries, that's OK, switch it out with another Berry.
But have berries in your diet because those plant pigments are
going to benefit your body. And it's just such a powerful
way, rather than having to go oncertain drugs that we don't even
(25:58):
know if some of these drugs workfor cognitive decline and
dementia, Do it naturally through the power of nutrition
instead. So Doctor Bennick, it's great.
It's great. It's great to hear that that
some of these real super foods that we can incorporate into
diet can help our eyes, can helpthe rest of our body too, even
our brain functioning. And I think you mentioned
(26:20):
there's a lot of ways to preparethis and add these things into
your into your diet. How do you personally, if you
know from your own personal journey from going to to the
diet you shared with us, the daily migraines, how did you
personally make that change? And was it a smoothie that you
added into your diet or a green juice?
(26:40):
How did you add these foods intoyour diet?
Yeah, one of the most powerful ways to move the needle on on
nutrition in general is rather than to take away foods.
A lot of people say I love my whatever it is, my chocolate
cake or my bacon with my breakfast, rather than to take
those away. I always tell patients, add
something, add this so that you're getting your nutrition
(27:04):
and yes, you can still enjoy those other things that you
normally love to eat. So the one thing you hit it on
the nail, Doctor Parikh, is the smoothie.
And I always advocate, I'm a huge fan of green smoothies,
particularly smoothies that incorporate some of these I
nutrients. So if you had to build your
perfect smoothie, I would include again 3 cups of your
(27:27):
favorite leafy green. Add half a cup to 1 cup of
berries, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of your favorite seeds.
So whether that be chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, these
are all great. They provide Omega threes by the
way, plant based versions of Omega threes.
And then add of maybe 1/4 cup ofnuts, add some milk, whatever
(27:49):
milk you prefer. I'm a big fan of plant based
milks like oat milk or almond milk, but there's lots of milks
out there you can choose from. And then blend it all together,
add some ice, maybe blend it alltogether.
And there you have a, depending on how much you put in there, 8
to 16 ounces of your of a green smoothie.
And there you go. You can get your 5 cups of
(28:10):
ocular nutrition in one go and you are done for the day and you
don't have to think about it. You've done your needs, your met
your needs and you can eat what else or whatever else you
normally eat. But if you're going to do that
one smoothie a day, it will do wonders.
Now I want to just address one other bring up, speak a little
bit more about this other option.
(28:30):
You can do smoothies or you can do green juices.
Green juices also have a lot of those amazing nutrients, but
when you juice, you're not having the fiber, and when you
have the smoothie, you're havingthe whole plant and you're
getting that fiber and a lot of the water that the plant has.
But the juicing does. It actually eliminates the
(28:51):
fiber. So I prefer the smoothies over
juicing. That's just a personal
preference, but the fiber is so important to keep our gut
healthy and we know that our guthealth also impacts so many
other organ systems, including our eye health.
And there is something called the eye gut connection.
So you want to support that and having fiber is a great way to
support that. So do this smoothie instead.
(29:12):
I love that. Tell us a little bit for those
that might not be aware, smoothie versus juicing.
So in a smoothie, you're puttingthe cups of greens into your
smoothie and you're blending it all together in a juice.
What do you is it really squeezing?
Like when you have you're makingorange juice, you're squeezing
the orange juice out of the orange.
Is that it's really like pressing it down and just taking
(29:35):
the the fluid or with some nutrients in it, but it's not
all the entire plant. So that's the difference.
And versus a smoothie, you're actually blending it all
together. So you're keeping all the
original benefits, the contents of the plant, and you're
blending it all together. That's great.
That's great that that makes a lot of sense.
So using a blender and making this and having this once a day
(29:57):
even, it seems like a good placeto start.
Yeah, and you don't even need any.
You don't need a fancy blender to do this.
Like I just use. I have a little Nutribullet that
I use and it's got, it's got a little container that's about, I
think it's like 16 ounces. So I know whatever I make there
is what I need to have. It's like a single serve or
(30:17):
maybe it'll serve two people depending on how much you want
to have. But it's very easy clean up.
It's not very expensive. It doesn't take up a lot of
counter space, so it's really not that difficult to do.
So this is great. What one one question I do have
for some of our viewers that maybe listening and say, hey, this
is great, but and I'd love to doit in an ideal world, but I work
(30:39):
2 jobs, I have 4 kids running around and things are very
stressful right now and I would love to do this.
But I also have on top of all this, I have health issues and I
have doctor appointments. Can I take a vitamin supplement?
And I know we're the best way toget nutrients from my
understanding is really through our food because we absorb
(31:00):
things better that way. But for someone who really may
not have the ability to do that at this moment, is there is
there a vitamin supplement they can take that or a specific or
different kinds? It's so hard to know because you
go to GNC or you go to CVS and there's a million different
brands, there's a million different vitamins with
different dosages. Do you have any advice for any
(31:23):
of our viewers that that want a little information on that?
Yeah, absolutely and completely get it.
I'm also busy and I don't alwayshave time to cook and prepare
foods. I think supplementation is
important if you need to fill inthe gaps.
So let's say you're not getting enough leafy greens, you're not
getting enough lutein, zeozanthin.
And by the way, studies have shown that these two nutrients,
(31:44):
the macula carotenoids, can helpprotect against blue light and
eye strain from being on devices.
So we're all on devices. We're on devices right now
during this interview. For those of you watching,
you're on a device probably. So how can you counteract that
rather than to get blue blockingglasses, which have not been
scientifically proven to work, include these nutrients in your
(32:05):
diet. And again, and supplement if you
need to. So yes, there are so many
supplements out there, and everyyear it seems like there are
more and more options to choose from.
The last I counted, they were atleast 75 eye health supplements
on the market. Like different brands, but
you're going to look for some ingredients.
You're going to look for the ingredients lutein,
(32:25):
enziazanthan, and misuziazanthan.
It may come as a branded ingredient called Luda Max 2020.
So you can look for that on the label.
You can look for Luda Max 2020 because that combines all the
macular carotenoids and you knowyou're getting the right dosage.
So there are lots of supplementsout there on the market that
have this blend. But in addition to that, you
(32:46):
want to maybe take a separate Omega supplement.
So many people will take fish oil, for example, so you can do
a separate Omega supplement to get your omegas.
And specifically for those bioflavonoids, I always look for
a multivitamin. Many people take a multi like
Centrum or Centrum. Unfortunately, that multi does
(33:08):
not have the bioflavonoids in it.
So you want to look for a multivitamin that has
bioflavonoids. So those would be my
suggestions. You don't again have to look for
each of those 30 nutrients in it.
It would be very burdensome to try to take off every single
nutrient, but look for groups ofnutrients.
Again, look for the macular carotenoids, the omegas, and the
(33:29):
bioflavonoids. And sometimes patients may have
to take three different things in order to supplement fully,
but that's OK. If you're not getting it from
diet, get it from supplementation.
And there are even now gummy forms of some of these nutrients
for kids. So if your kids are on screens
for hours a day, which a lot of us are doing and a lot of our
(33:51):
kids are doing because now even their homework is on screens,
you can encourage them to take asupplement.
That's great. I love what you said about
filling in the gaps and, and I think that's really, really
valuable advice. Is there a common myth or
misconception that you often hear from patients that you'd
like to share with us or share with your viewers?
(34:14):
Yeah, I think I may have mentioned this earlier, but it
goes back to carrots. And maybe many of us have heard
this from our grandparents. Our parents.
Like, eat your carrots. They're good for your eyes.
They're absolutely good for our eyes.
But they're not the only food weneed.
Carrots are what I explained to my patients.
Carrots are the tip of the iceberg, but you need to eat the
(34:36):
whole you know what the 90% of what's below that tip of the
iceberg to support your eyes. So don't just rely on one
nutrient, one food. Have that diversity in your
diet. So this whole interview so far
has been informative and, and I think our viewers will really
appreciate the practical advice that we're getting if they, if
(34:58):
they're interested in finding your books and learning more
about this, how can they, where can they find this and where can
they learn more about ocular nutrition?
Absolutely. I think the best resource will
be my website. It's my name, so Doctor Ronnie
vanik.com, and there you can find everything that I share out
there in the world. So my books are there.
(35:18):
The links to my books are there.I also have a podcast called the
IQ Podcast in which I interview experts and sometimes even my
patients about vision issues. So you can find a lot of
information there. I also have my supplements.
I'll include that link as well, and that's also on my website.
I have a curated line of eye supplements that include the
(35:39):
macular cratenoids, and I have one for the Omegas and then a
multi that has those bioflavonoids.
If you're looking for curated eye health supplements, that's
the great place to to find them.Thank you, Doctor Preak.
And and I guess 2, two more questions I have for you, one of
them being a key take away that you'd like viewers to remember
from this segment. Sure.
(36:01):
So this goes back to an old saying that goes back actually
millennia, like thousands of years back to ancient
civilizations. And that saying is food is
medicine. And many people attribute that
saying to Hippocrates. But again, it goes back actually
millennia before Hippocrates. But the thought is if you eat
(36:22):
right, if you make the right dietary choices, not only will
you be supporting your health, but you will be proactively
preventing disease. And so really, I live by that.
Food is medicine. Eat the right foods.
And also going back to the way Iused to eat my unhealthy diet,
stay away from foods that may actually be fueling inflammation
(36:46):
and fueling disease. So it should make the right
choices, but also try to reduce your intake of some of those
perhaps unhealthy foods and thatwill keep your body and your
eyes healthy. That's amazing.
And then just the just going back to your sort of personal
story and your daily migraines, which I can't even imagine how
hard it is to deal with daily migraines on top of all the
(37:07):
other responsibilities in the day.
How has changing your diet and trying the elimination diet
impacted you personally? It's been really a profound
journey because I realized the importance of not just diet, but
also lifestyle choices. I didn't mention this earlier,
but in addition to my very unhealthy diet, I was also under
(37:30):
a tremendous amount of stress. I wasn't managing my stress very
well. I was sleeping maybe like 3-4
hours a night on top of all of that.
And so there's no, it's really no wonder now that I had these
daily migraines. And now fortunately, I've been
doing this now for several years, making dietary changes,
lifestyle changes, but I still get migraine.
There's no cure for migraines. I still get it maybe two or
(37:53):
three days out of the month, butit's still a huge improvement
compared to having migraine 30 days out of the month.
So I'm so fortunate that my eyeswere open to this this, this
empowering choice that I had about my nutrition because it's
made such a huge difference in my own daily life.
And I have my life back. I have control back over my
(38:15):
symptoms. So I think it was just
serendipity that I came across this and now I can share it with
my patients. I'm really fortunate to be able
to have the tools now to empowerthem to take control of their
health as well. That's amazing.
That's amazing. Thank you, Doctor Bannock for
sharing your expertise and passion with us today.
Your insights really show how what we eat can have a real
(38:37):
significant impact on our visionand overall health.
Stay tuned everyone and take care of those eyes.
Thank you, Doctor Parikh. Thank you for tuning into the IQ
Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's
episode and learn something new to help elevate your IQ.
If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave
a review and share the podcast with your friends.
(39:00):
Stay connected with Doctor Ronnie Banik for more eye
opening insights on eye health, nutrition and lifestyle.
Until next time, keep your vision clear and your IQ sharp.
Carrots are absolutely wonderfulfoods for your eyes.
But the reason why I called the book Beyond Carrots is because
there is this myth out there, this misconception that if you
just eat a bunch of carrots every day or every week, that
you will have 2020 vision. People just automatically assume
that, OK, if I just eat this onefood, I'll be fine.
(00:22):
I don't have to worry about my eyes.
But that's not the case. Carrots, yes, they're great
foods because they provide beta carotene.
Beta carotene gives carrots their beautiful orange color,
but it's just one of the many nutrients her eyes need to stay
healthy. So don't just eat your carrots,
eat them plus other foods as well.
Welcome to the IQ podcast, hosted by Doctor Ronnie Banach,
(00:46):
America's Integrated neuro ophthalmologist.
Doctor Bannock, it's a pleasure to have this opportunity to
interview you for a change. Now you've authored 3 books, the
first one of course being BeyondCarrots, Best Foods for Eye
Health from A-Z and then of course Dr. Ronnie's Visionary
Kitchen and Doctor Ronnie's Plant Based Visionary Kitchen.
(01:08):
Can you share, just as an introduction, a little bit about
what sparked your passion for ocular nutrition and how your
journey got started? Absolutely.
I'd be happy to. And first of all, thank you so
much for interviewing me. And when it comes to nutrition,
I really, my interest really came about because of the health
issue that I was having and how nutrition really changed the
(01:29):
trajectory of my own health journey.
So I have to disclose this. When I was younger, I used to
eat very poorly. I grew up living on junk food.
Basically. That's what we had in the house.
That's what I would eat even when I was in my 20s, early 30s,
late 30s, I just eat junk food most of the time.
I lived off of pizza and ice cream and diet soda.
(01:50):
That was my, my, those were the three staples in my diet.
And what happened was in my early 40s, I developed really
bad migraine. And so basically I would have
migraine attacks pretty often and it became more and more
frequent to the point where it was happening every single day.
So if any of you have had migraine, you know that it's not
fun having a migraine. It's quite debilitating
(02:13):
actually. And I couldn't shake it.
I had been to, I live in New York City, I'd been to some of
the top headache doctors and they kept prescribing me
medication after medication. Nothing was working.
So I tried this for two or threeyears and then I knew I had to
find a different approach. And then one of my colleagues
suggested that I do something called an elimination diet.
(02:35):
And I never had even heard of what an elimination diet was.
What's basically where you remove pro inflammatory foods
from your diet and replace it with more healthy Whole Foods
instead. So I was fascinated and I said,
OK, I'm going to look into this.And when I what I realized was
that there were so many foods that I was eating that were pro
inflammatory, that were processed foods that had refined
(02:58):
sugars, just the worst types of foods that you can imagine.
It's basically what I was eatingfor years and decades.
So once they came to that realization that, Oh my
goodness, maybe my own dietary choices were contributing to my
problem, I started to address that and I removed a lot of
those foods and I they replace them with more fruits and
vegetables and whole grains and less processed foods.
(03:21):
And that's when I started to getbetter.
So this is really a big turning point in my life and my career
when I realized the power of nutrition for my own health
issue. And I started to use the same
principles for a lot of my migraine patients, and I started
to use them a lot for my patients with ocular disease.
And I saw a lot of the incredible results that my
(03:42):
patients got by changing their diet.
And then I knew that I had to get this message out to the
world. So that's how it all came about,
from a personal health journey that's now become my passion and
my mission in life. So doctor panic, I love that
honest response and a little bitabout your journey.
And I just want to highlight twothings based off of that.
And we're medical doctors, we'rephysicians.
(04:05):
And a lot of the public has this, has this preconceived
notion that because you're a doctor, you're probably eating
healthy and you're probably on top of that, your health.
And clearly a lot of doctors, they're so busy, they're not
really paying attention to theirnutrition.
They're not really, they're eating fast, quick foods and the
(04:26):
processed foods. And then the other part I want
to highlight is, is that your journey into nutrition stem from
a, from something that you went through personally.
And it wasn't, even though we'remedical doctors, there's not a
lot of attention given to nutrition during our training,
if any. We learned a lot about
biochemistry. We learned a lot about the Krebs
(04:46):
cycle. But in medical school and
residency training, there's not a lot of focus on on nutrition.
Is that your experience too? Absolutely.
And when I think back to my medical school training, I can
remember about four hours based that we got nutrition education,
We learned about the macro nutrients, what are what is a
fat, what is a protein, what is a carbohydrate?
(05:08):
What is some nutritional deficiencies that can happen.
For example, vitamin C deficiency can make the scurvy.
That was about it. And just after medical school,
even during internship, residency, fellowship, we really
never got proper education aboutnutrition, only the extremes
when someone is severely deficient, what can happen?
(05:28):
But we never really learned about making healthy choices,
whether it be for our eyes or our brain or our heart or the
rest of our. We never really learned that.
So I really hope that the the training that we get is now
slowly shifting to include some of those topics.
And I know that a lot of medicalschools are now offering more
(05:48):
education to their students, which I'm really excited about.
Yeah. I think that has a big role.
I think a lot of a lot of ailments it could be maybe
prevented or mitigated. And I think I think more
attention on nutrition is, is definitely good for all of us.
And for the viewers that might be a little new to the concept
of ocular nutrition specificallyand how it relates to the eyes.
(06:10):
Can you tell us about that in simple terms and the and why
it's so important? Absolutely.
As many of us, we first of all, we take our eyes for granted.
We wake up in the morning expecting that we'll be able to
see clearly, and we don't reallythink about all the inner
workings of the eye. The eye is such a complex organ.
It's got over 40 different partsthat work together.
(06:33):
It's got over 200 different celltypes.
And all of those different partsand cell types have a lot of
different nutritional needs. And the eye is very highly
metabolic, meaning that it has avery high metabolic rate.
It processes light energy, it turns over cells constantly.
And in order to do that, we needa wide diverse nutrient intake.
(06:56):
And so ideally you want to get that those nutrients from food,
food. And sometimes when you're not
able to supply your eyes with that variety of nutrients from
food, it is important to supplement as well.
So my take home message here to try to put this in a nutshell is
the eye is really complex. It has a lot of metabolic
demands and the best way to support that is through
(07:18):
nutrition and through diversity in your nutrition.
For someone who's listening saysthis makes sense to me.
What would you highlight from all your research in the books
you've written? What's a good What are good
things to include into our diet that will benefit our eyes?
You know, that's a great question, Doctor Parikh.
So in my book, Beyond Carrots, Igo through, OK, these are the 30
(07:40):
nutrients our eyes need. So it's not just one or two
nutrients. Again, lots of nutrients, but
it's hard to remember what they all are.
So then I break it down into three main classes of nutrients
that you really should be mindful.
Be sure to get these in your diet on a daily basis.
So what are these three main classes?
(08:00):
First, there are macular carotenoids, and you may have
heard of them. They have fancy names.
They're called lutein, Xiazanthan, mesozozanthan.
But what these nutrients are, they're cousins to beta
carotene, they're cousins to vitamin A, and they're essential
for the health of our retina. They get deposited into the back
(08:21):
of the eye in the macula, which is responsible for our 2020
vision. So if you don't have adequate
supply of these nutrients, we can't protect the eye against
various types of what we call toxins or oxidative stress or
photo oxidative stress. So for example, when light comes
into the eye, it can cause potential damage to the retina
(08:43):
and these nutrients protect against that damage.
So you can think of them as yourinternal sunglasses or internal
blue blockers. That's one way to think of them.
And then the next nutrient class, so those are the macular
carotenoids. The next nutrient class would
would be Omega fatty acids. And many of us have heard of the
(09:05):
omegas, particularly Omega threes, EPADHA.
We've heard about them for our brain health, for heart health,
for our immune system, for our skin health.
But they are also really important for our eye health,
specifically DHA, which is 1 type of omega-3.
If we think about the cells in the retina that capture light,
(09:25):
these cells are called photoreceptors and the
structural backbone of these photoreceptors is DHA.
And here's an interesting fun fact.
The highest concentration of DHAin the body is in our retinal
photoreceptors. So we need a great constant
supply of DHA because our bodiescan't make DHA.
(09:45):
We need it from diet and or supplements to provide our
retinal photoreceptors with the key nutrients so they can turn
over and process light energy. So again, that's the second
class would be the omega-3 fattyacids, EPA and then the third
class would be nutrients that fall into plant compounds, which
we call bioflavonoids. And these compounds are found
(10:09):
usually in very colorful plants.And what they do in the plants
is that they protect the plant against disease, they protect
the plant against oxidative stress, against infection,
against inflammation. So they're at the plants natural
defense mechanisms and they're very potent antioxidants.
So when we ingest these types ofplants and their nutrients,
(10:32):
those benefits get conferred to our bodies.
So they help us protect against again, oxidative stress, which
is a key driver of any kind of eye disease, whether that be
macular degeneration or glaucomaor cataract.
The base, the base problem or the root causes really oxidative
stress. So again, these plant compounds
(10:52):
that we call bioflavonoids and some examples would be cursatin,
which is found in certain types of colorful foods like red
onions and berries, many other apples for example, many common
foods have cursatin. Also anthocyanins, I know these
are long fancy terms, but anthocyanins are found in
(11:13):
berries. So berries are have lots of
bioflavonoids, ulcer curcumin, which is found in the spice
turmeric or turmeric, which we've talked about before.
That's also an example of a bioflavonoid.
So that's an A big overview of ocular nutrition.
So get these three classes and again, macular carotenoids,
omega-3 fatty acids, and bioflavonoids and rotate through
(11:36):
these foods to make sure that your eyes are getting the
nutrients that they need. Doctor Ronnie, thank you for
that, that, that thorough, thorough response.
And so if I could just summarizefor the audience.
So eyes are very metabolically active.
There's these three classes of nutrients that you really
recommend because of how metabolically active and how
(11:56):
hard our eyes work from morning to night.
To break it down even simpler, are there foods, specific foods?
I know you mentioned a couple ofthem, but is there one magic
thing I can eat every day or ourviewers can eat every day?
Whether it's whatever you say, avocado, one thing we should
include in our diet that might have all three of these, or tell
(12:17):
us a little bit about the specific foods we can or should
incorporate. There is no one magic food that
you should include in your diet because there are so many foods
that can be beneficial. But if I had to choose one
single food or maybe a group of foods, I would say leafy greens,
and that includes foods like spinach, kale.
(12:38):
I would say kale is #1 if you'regoing to choose one food, that
would be your number one magic food or super food for your
eyes. But spinach, kale, any kind of
greens, whether they're collard greens, dandelion greens,
mustard greens, any kind of green leafy vegetables will have
the macular carotenoids. So they will provide you with
those nutrients to protect your retina.
They do have a lower amount of Omega fatty acids.
(13:01):
They do have some Omega threes in them and the colorful part
will provide you some of the bioflavonoids.
Not a lot of them, but some of them.
So again, if you're going to choose that one superfood, it
would be leafy greens. I think that's great and I think
leafy greens incorporates a widevariety there.
So you have because I've definitely kale, although it's
(13:23):
known for its wonderful nutritional value, I have
patients that either love kale or hate kale, and it seems kale
seems very. As a certain taste and for some
people it's too bitter. It's just too bitter to stomach.
So the good news is you have options.
And I'll, I want to highlight another leafy green that
oftentimes we don't think about it would be rainbow charred.
(13:46):
And if you've ever seen rainbow chart, yes, it's green, its
leaves are green, but the stem is this beautiful like it, it's
actually multi colored. It's got some orange and yellow
and red in there. So if you're going to choose a
leafy green, maybe try that one out because it's, I believe it's
slightly less, at least to my palate, it's a little bit less
bitter than kale. And it's got some of those other
(14:09):
beautiful colors in it to give you those other nutrients.
So Doctor Ronnie, for our patients, our viewers that are
listening that maybe right now have a diet like you used to,
for example, like you mentioned with ice cream being a staple,
etcetera, etcetera. And they're new to greens and
they want to they see the benefits potentially.
And so the stem is something they can eat also and the stem
(14:30):
also has nutritional value. Is that correct?
Yes, yes. And I'll give you an example.
So let's take broccoli, right? Most of us when we think of
broccoli, eating broccoli, we eat the florets like the top
part of the plant, but actually,so the broccoli has many great
values it as it actually has. I don't want to use too many
scientific terms here, but thereis one compound called
(14:53):
glucosinolate, which is a detoxifying nutrient.
So broccoli has a very high concentration of this nutrient,
helps us to detoxify and it's present in the florets, but it's
also present in the stem and also the leaves of the plant.
So if somehow you can incorporate into your, however
(15:13):
you prepare your produce, if youcan incorporate the stem, steam
it, break it up into pieces, maybe blend it, have some of the
leaves in there as well. Try to incorporate the whole
plant into your diet, not just the fluoresce which we typically
think of. Yeah.
And if that's super informative for some patients where maybe
they don't like the florets, butat least if even if they eat the
(15:35):
stems and that there's benefit to that.
You can even make a vegetable stock.
Let's say you're many people make like a chicken stock or
beef stock, but you can even make like a vegetable stock and
put the stems in there with the leaves.
Let it boil for some time with other, maybe a little bit of
herbs and spices as well, and use that as a base for your
soups or other types of foods that you make.
(15:56):
There's lots of ways to be creative using the whole plant.
That's great. What about bell Peppers are
there? That's a favorite of mine
because I find them so flavorful.
And but you know, does that havea lot of a lot of these
beneficial compounds as well? What if someone just isn't a fan
of green leafy vegetables? Are there other alternatives and
options? Absolutely.
(16:18):
And this is actually what I talkabout in my first book, Beyond
Carrots, Best Foods for Eye Health A-Z, because I do go
through, it's not just one particular food or group you
should be eating. There's a lot of options.
If you don't like leafy greens, bell Peppers are a great
alternative, especially a lot ofpeople think about, oh, I'm
going to have some green bell Peppers.
(16:38):
That's probably the most commonly available.
But in reality, if you have yourchoice, opt for the orange and
the yellow ones. And the reason I say this is
because the color of the orange and the yellow bell Peppers.
The reason it's that color is because it's very high in the
macular carotenoids. Lutein and ziazanthin are
(16:59):
orange, orange, yellow pigments.And those bell Peppers will
provide you with a good concentration of that, maybe not
as high as kale or spinach, but it's pretty high.
So that would be a good option. And then if you think about
other yellow and orange foods, for example, corn, corn is most,
they're different varieties of corn, but the most common
(17:20):
variety is yellow. And it's yellow because of high
concentrations of lutein and xiazanthan.
And actually the scientific namefor corn is xia maze, and that's
where the word xiazanthan came from.
And then if you eat eggs, the beautiful yolk, the orange
yellow color of the yolk in eggsis from is because of high cost
(17:42):
concentrations of lutein in zeozanthin.
So there are many ways to get these nutrients and you don't
have to stick to just one particular food or food group.
I really appreciate you breakingsome of this down for us a
little bit because nutrition gets very complicated because it
seems every few years we hear something different, right?
So 15 years ago, oh, don't eat the yolk, right?
(18:05):
Stay away from the yolk because it's bad for you.
Just eat the egg whites, etcetera.
But now in the last few years, I'm reading a lot and learning a
lot about potential benefits of the like you mentioned.
And I think that's what makes nutrition so, so difficult is
we're always learning more and more about our foods that we're
eating. Yeah, absolutely.
(18:27):
And I want to just echo what yousaid about science always
changing. There are those studies from
1015 years ago that said if you eat too many eggs, your
cholesterol is going to go high and stay away from eggs if you
have heart issues, etcetera, cholesterol issues.
But now a lot of those studies have been completely refuted.
You know what we used to believe, what we were taught is
(18:49):
no longer the case. And so it is important to try to
stay for us as providers, to tryto stay aware of all of these
sometimes conflicting studies. But the studies have shown that
even if you eat like some peoplecan eat two or three eggs a day
and not have their cholesterol being affected.
Talk to your doctor, get some personalized advice, but try to
(19:10):
include some of these foods. Even though they may have been
labeled as unhealthy in the past.
Maybe they're not so unhealthy in moderate amounts and not high
quantities, but in moderate amounts they should be OK.
And then the question of that everyone is wondering, you
mentioned yellow and orange foods, carrots, carrots are
still good. Are we OK to Are we OK with
(19:31):
carrots? Yeah, so carrots are absolutely
wonderful foods for your eyes. But the reason why I called the
book Beyond Carrots is because there is this myth out there,
this misconception that if you just eat a bunch of carrots
every day or every week, that you will have 2020 vision.
(19:51):
People just automatically assumethat OK, if I just eat this one
food, I'll be fine, I don't haveto worry about my eyes.
But that's not the case. Carrots, yes, they're great
foods because they provide beta carotene.
Beta carotene gives carrots their beautiful orange color,
but it's just one of the many nutrients their eyes need to
stay healthy. So don't just eat your carrots,
(20:12):
eat them plus other foods as well.
You might have heard that eatingcarrots is good for your eyes,
but what if we told you that there are more foods that can do
wonders for your vision? Introducing Beyond Carrots Best
foods for eye Health A-Z, the new book by Doctor Rudrani
Bannick and D. In this eye opening book, Doctor
Bannick highlights over 30 nutrients necessary for healthy
(20:33):
vision and shares 40 delicious foods richest in those
nutrients. Hi, I'm Doctor Odrani Thanik,
and I'm here to tell you there'sso much more to eye health than
just carrots and just beta carotene.
In Beyond Carrots, you'll learn how to keep your vision healthy
and vibrant by using the power of nutrition.
Imagine being able to see the world clearly in all its beauty
(20:54):
for years to come. To keep your vision healthy and
strong, you need to go beyond carrots.
Get your copy today of Beyond Carrots Best Foods for Eye
Health A-Z available on Amazon. Take the first step towards
healthy to your vision and protect your precious eyesight
for the years ahead. What one question I have is how
much, right? So is it is it better to eat a
(21:16):
little bit of this stuff, incorporate it, add it to your
diet a little bit every day or better to just maybe eat one big
salad once a week? What?
How should we aim to incorporatethese foods and how much do we
need to eat? Is it that I have to eat kale
all day to protect my eyes? Or tell us a little bit about
(21:37):
how do I have to quit my job andonly eat kale and carrots?
Or like, tell us a little bit about how the practicality of
this. Yeah, there's such an important
question, Doctor Parikh. And no, you do not have to quit
your job just so you can eat foryour eye.
Please do not quit your job for this.
So let me try to simplify it a little bit.
So our eyes again need a lot of nutrients and sometimes my
(22:00):
patients when I tell them how much they need to eat and it
should be every day, they cringebecause they're not doing this.
And I also would have cringed before when I was eating my
unhealthy diet. But try to strive for three to
five cups of colorful fruits andveggies in your diet every
single day. So not once a week, not two or
(22:22):
three times a week, every day, try to have three to five cups.
And again, it's a diversity. So you know, leafy greens are
important. So let's say you're going to
have three cups of your favoriteleafy green, whatever it is,
spinach, kale, collard greens, etcetera. 3 cups of that, One
Cup of or half a cup to 1 cup ofberries.
(22:44):
Blueberries are my favorite for eye health and brain health.
But you can have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, goji
berries. Mix it up with your berries.
So 3 cups of leafy greens, 1 cupof berries, and the other can be
your choice. Maybe you're having some bell
Peppers, maybe you're having some fruits, apples, for
example. Grapes, especially the darker
(23:05):
colored grapes like red grapes, dark purple grapes, black
grapes, black grapes are delicious, by the way.
Include some of those or have some nuts and seeds.
Nuts and seeds also count. So whether you're having maybe
1/4 cup of pistachios or almondsor cashews, maybe some seeds,
hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds.
(23:27):
So try, I just strive for three to five cups and I know
initially a lot of people will recoil and say, Oh my goodness,
I barely have a leaf of lettuce on my sandwich.
That's my like intake of fruits and veggies every day or these
types of foods. But really be mindful of it.
And once you start thinking about it, you'll discover that
there are lots of ways you can incorporate these foods.
(23:48):
Maybe have a snack pack, like a little container of some nuts
and just have that as a snack and that counts as well.
You mentioned nutrition, and thetopic we're talking about really
is ocular nutrition. But in listening to what you
said, you brought up that blueberries may be good for the
eyes and also may be good for the brain.
I think you said yes. Tell us a little bit about that
(24:11):
because and again, some of the things you mentioned like
omega-3 fatty acids, I know thatthe cardiologists tend to like
that there's benefits to the heart from Omega threes.
And it seems like there's a lot of overlap in in, in that
nutrients that you mentioned andthat they're not just good for
the eyes, but they may be beneficial for brain health,
preventing dementia or Alzheimer's, for example.
(24:32):
Can you shed some light on on that overlap?
Absolutely. And you're so right, Doctor
Parikh, in your point that when you're eating mindfully for your
eyes, you're benefiting not justyour vision, you're betting
benefiting your whole body because there's so much overlap
in these nutrients. What they can do for us, how
they can fight inflammation and oxidative stress and keep us
(24:53):
healthy. So yes, you're eating specific
things for your eyes, like the leafy greens or the berries or
the omegas, but they're benefiting everything.
And you get a 2 for one or threefor one or four for one with
those choices. And I'll just add a little bit
about the berries because there has been a lot of research
that's been published recently in the past five years or so
(25:15):
about the cognitive benefits of berries.
So studies have shown that if you have half a cup of
blueberries a day, half a cup, that you can reduce the risk of
cognitive decline in dementia. So a simple change in your
nutrition can again, not just benefit your vision, they are
benefiting your overall brain health and it can slow cognitive
(25:38):
decline. So it's something I recommend
for everyone. Include those berries in your
diet. And if you don't like
blueberries, that's OK, switch it out with another Berry.
But have berries in your diet because those plant pigments are
going to benefit your body. And it's just such a powerful
way, rather than having to go oncertain drugs that we don't even
(25:58):
know if some of these drugs workfor cognitive decline and
dementia, Do it naturally through the power of nutrition
instead. So Doctor Bennick, it's great.
It's great. It's great to hear that that
some of these real super foods that we can incorporate into
diet can help our eyes, can helpthe rest of our body too, even
our brain functioning. And I think you mentioned
(26:20):
there's a lot of ways to preparethis and add these things into
your into your diet. How do you personally, if you
know from your own personal journey from going to to the
diet you shared with us, the daily migraines, how did you
personally make that change? And was it a smoothie that you
added into your diet or a green juice?
(26:40):
How did you add these foods intoyour diet?
Yeah, one of the most powerful ways to move the needle on on
nutrition in general is rather than to take away foods.
A lot of people say I love my whatever it is, my chocolate
cake or my bacon with my breakfast, rather than to take
those away. I always tell patients, add
something, add this so that you're getting your nutrition
(27:04):
and yes, you can still enjoy those other things that you
normally love to eat. So the one thing you hit it on
the nail, Doctor Parikh, is the smoothie.
And I always advocate, I'm a huge fan of green smoothies,
particularly smoothies that incorporate some of these I
nutrients. So if you had to build your
perfect smoothie, I would include again 3 cups of your
(27:27):
favorite leafy green. Add half a cup to 1 cup of
berries, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of your favorite seeds.
So whether that be chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, these
are all great. They provide Omega threes by the
way, plant based versions of Omega threes.
And then add of maybe 1/4 cup ofnuts, add some milk, whatever
(27:49):
milk you prefer. I'm a big fan of plant based
milks like oat milk or almond milk, but there's lots of milks
out there you can choose from. And then blend it all together,
add some ice, maybe blend it alltogether.
And there you have a, depending on how much you put in there, 8
to 16 ounces of your of a green smoothie.
And there you go. You can get your 5 cups of
(28:10):
ocular nutrition in one go and you are done for the day and you
don't have to think about it. You've done your needs, your met
your needs and you can eat what else or whatever else you
normally eat. But if you're going to do that
one smoothie a day, it will do wonders.
Now I want to just address one other bring up, speak a little
bit more about this other option.
(28:30):
You can do smoothies or you can do green juices.
Green juices also have a lot of those amazing nutrients, but
when you juice, you're not having the fiber, and when you
have the smoothie, you're havingthe whole plant and you're
getting that fiber and a lot of the water that the plant has.
But the juicing does. It actually eliminates the
(28:51):
fiber. So I prefer the smoothies over
juicing. That's just a personal
preference, but the fiber is so important to keep our gut
healthy and we know that our guthealth also impacts so many
other organ systems, including our eye health.
And there is something called the eye gut connection.
So you want to support that and having fiber is a great way to
support that. So do this smoothie instead.
(29:12):
I love that. Tell us a little bit for those
that might not be aware, smoothie versus juicing.
So in a smoothie, you're puttingthe cups of greens into your
smoothie and you're blending it all together in a juice.
What do you is it really squeezing?
Like when you have you're makingorange juice, you're squeezing
the orange juice out of the orange.
Is that it's really like pressing it down and just taking
(29:35):
the the fluid or with some nutrients in it, but it's not
all the entire plant. So that's the difference.
And versus a smoothie, you're actually blending it all
together. So you're keeping all the
original benefits, the contents of the plant, and you're
blending it all together. That's great.
That's great that that makes a lot of sense.
So using a blender and making this and having this once a day
(29:57):
even, it seems like a good placeto start.
Yeah, and you don't even need any.
You don't need a fancy blender to do this.
Like I just use. I have a little Nutribullet that
I use and it's got, it's got a little container that's about, I
think it's like 16 ounces. So I know whatever I make there
is what I need to have. It's like a single serve or
(30:17):
maybe it'll serve two people depending on how much you want
to have. But it's very easy clean up.
It's not very expensive. It doesn't take up a lot of
counter space, so it's really not that difficult to do.
So this is great. What one one question I do have
for some of our viewers that maybe listening and say, hey, this
is great, but and I'd love to doit in an ideal world, but I work
(30:39):
2 jobs, I have 4 kids running around and things are very
stressful right now and I would love to do this.
But I also have on top of all this, I have health issues and I
have doctor appointments. Can I take a vitamin supplement?
And I know we're the best way toget nutrients from my
understanding is really through our food because we absorb
(31:00):
things better that way. But for someone who really may
not have the ability to do that at this moment, is there is
there a vitamin supplement they can take that or a specific or
different kinds? It's so hard to know because you
go to GNC or you go to CVS and there's a million different
brands, there's a million different vitamins with
different dosages. Do you have any advice for any
(31:23):
of our viewers that that want a little information on that?
Yeah, absolutely and completely get it.
I'm also busy and I don't alwayshave time to cook and prepare
foods. I think supplementation is
important if you need to fill inthe gaps.
So let's say you're not getting enough leafy greens, you're not
getting enough lutein, zeozanthin.
And by the way, studies have shown that these two nutrients,
(31:44):
the macula carotenoids, can helpprotect against blue light and
eye strain from being on devices.
So we're all on devices. We're on devices right now
during this interview. For those of you watching,
you're on a device probably. So how can you counteract that
rather than to get blue blockingglasses, which have not been
scientifically proven to work, include these nutrients in your
(32:05):
diet. And again, and supplement if you
need to. So yes, there are so many
supplements out there, and everyyear it seems like there are
more and more options to choose from.
The last I counted, they were atleast 75 eye health supplements
on the market. Like different brands, but
you're going to look for some ingredients.
You're going to look for the ingredients lutein,
(32:25):
enziazanthan, and misuziazanthan.
It may come as a branded ingredient called Luda Max 2020.
So you can look for that on the label.
You can look for Luda Max 2020 because that combines all the
macular carotenoids and you knowyou're getting the right dosage.
So there are lots of supplementsout there on the market that
have this blend. But in addition to that, you
(32:46):
want to maybe take a separate Omega supplement.
So many people will take fish oil, for example, so you can do
a separate Omega supplement to get your omegas.
And specifically for those bioflavonoids, I always look for
a multivitamin. Many people take a multi like
Centrum or Centrum. Unfortunately, that multi does
(33:08):
not have the bioflavonoids in it.
So you want to look for a multivitamin that has
bioflavonoids. So those would be my
suggestions. You don't again have to look for
each of those 30 nutrients in it.
It would be very burdensome to try to take off every single
nutrient, but look for groups ofnutrients.
Again, look for the macular carotenoids, the omegas, and the
(33:29):
bioflavonoids. And sometimes patients may have
to take three different things in order to supplement fully,
but that's OK. If you're not getting it from
diet, get it from supplementation.
And there are even now gummy forms of some of these nutrients
for kids. So if your kids are on screens
for hours a day, which a lot of us are doing and a lot of our
(33:51):
kids are doing because now even their homework is on screens,
you can encourage them to take asupplement.
That's great. I love what you said about
filling in the gaps and, and I think that's really, really
valuable advice. Is there a common myth or
misconception that you often hear from patients that you'd
like to share with us or share with your viewers?
(34:14):
Yeah, I think I may have mentioned this earlier, but it
goes back to carrots. And maybe many of us have heard
this from our grandparents. Our parents.
Like, eat your carrots. They're good for your eyes.
They're absolutely good for our eyes.
But they're not the only food weneed.
Carrots are what I explained to my patients.
Carrots are the tip of the iceberg, but you need to eat the
(34:36):
whole you know what the 90% of what's below that tip of the
iceberg to support your eyes. So don't just rely on one
nutrient, one food. Have that diversity in your
diet. So this whole interview so far
has been informative and, and I think our viewers will really
appreciate the practical advice that we're getting if they, if
(34:58):
they're interested in finding your books and learning more
about this, how can they, where can they find this and where can
they learn more about ocular nutrition?
Absolutely. I think the best resource will
be my website. It's my name, so Doctor Ronnie
vanik.com, and there you can find everything that I share out
there in the world. So my books are there.
(35:18):
The links to my books are there.I also have a podcast called the
IQ Podcast in which I interview experts and sometimes even my
patients about vision issues. So you can find a lot of
information there. I also have my supplements.
I'll include that link as well, and that's also on my website.
I have a curated line of eye supplements that include the
(35:39):
macular cratenoids, and I have one for the Omegas and then a
multi that has those bioflavonoids.
If you're looking for curated eye health supplements, that's
the great place to to find them.Thank you, Doctor Preak.
And and I guess 2, two more questions I have for you, one of
them being a key take away that you'd like viewers to remember
from this segment. Sure.
(36:01):
So this goes back to an old saying that goes back actually
millennia, like thousands of years back to ancient
civilizations. And that saying is food is
medicine. And many people attribute that
saying to Hippocrates. But again, it goes back actually
millennia before Hippocrates. But the thought is if you eat
(36:22):
right, if you make the right dietary choices, not only will
you be supporting your health, but you will be proactively
preventing disease. And so really, I live by that.
Food is medicine. Eat the right foods.
And also going back to the way Iused to eat my unhealthy diet,
stay away from foods that may actually be fueling inflammation
(36:46):
and fueling disease. So it should make the right
choices, but also try to reduce your intake of some of those
perhaps unhealthy foods and thatwill keep your body and your
eyes healthy. That's amazing.
And then just the just going back to your sort of personal
story and your daily migraines, which I can't even imagine how
hard it is to deal with daily migraines on top of all the
(37:07):
other responsibilities in the day.
How has changing your diet and trying the elimination diet
impacted you personally? It's been really a profound
journey because I realized the importance of not just diet, but
also lifestyle choices. I didn't mention this earlier,
but in addition to my very unhealthy diet, I was also under
(37:30):
a tremendous amount of stress. I wasn't managing my stress very
well. I was sleeping maybe like 3-4
hours a night on top of all of that.
And so there's no, it's really no wonder now that I had these
daily migraines. And now fortunately, I've been
doing this now for several years, making dietary changes,
lifestyle changes, but I still get migraine.
There's no cure for migraines. I still get it maybe two or
(37:53):
three days out of the month, butit's still a huge improvement
compared to having migraine 30 days out of the month.
So I'm so fortunate that my eyeswere open to this this, this
empowering choice that I had about my nutrition because it's
made such a huge difference in my own daily life.
And I have my life back. I have control back over my
(38:15):
symptoms. So I think it was just
serendipity that I came across this and now I can share it with
my patients. I'm really fortunate to be able
to have the tools now to empowerthem to take control of their
health as well. That's amazing.
That's amazing. Thank you, Doctor Bannock for
sharing your expertise and passion with us today.
Your insights really show how what we eat can have a real
(38:37):
significant impact on our visionand overall health.
Stay tuned everyone and take care of those eyes.
Thank you, Doctor Parikh. Thank you for tuning into the IQ
Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's
episode and learn something new to help elevate your IQ.
If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave
a review and share the podcast with your friends.
(39:00):
Stay connected with Doctor Ronnie Banik for more eye
opening insights on eye health, nutrition and lifestyle.
Until next time, keep your vision clear and your IQ sharp.
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