Blinded by Carbohydrates

Maybe it's time to push back the pasta. Scientists have recently found that high carbohydrate intake coincided with high risk of developing cataracts in women 53 to 73.

The women in the study with high average carb intake - 200 to 268 grams per day - were 2.5 times more likely to get cortical cataracts than the women whose intake was between 101 and 185 grams per day. The recommended dietary allowance - 130 grams for adults and children - for daily carb intake is based on how much the brain needs to function properly.

The women were at high risk of developing a cortical cataract, one of three distinguishable types of cataracts. Carbohydrates are mainly sugars and starches that the body breaks down into glucose, a simple sugar that feeds the body's cells.

Cataracts are formed when damaged proteins gather within one or both of the eye lenses, causing the eye to become cloudy or opaque. High-carbohydrate diets may have a harmful effect on the lens as a result of increased exposure of normal lens proteins to glucose.

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and about 20 million Americans older than 40 have it.

The study was led by Chung-Jung Chiu and Allen Taylor at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston and is part of the Nutrition and Vision Project, a substudy of the federally funded Nurses' Health Study. The study was published in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

--Bjorn Carey

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