Too Many Simple Carbs May Raise Risk of Blindness

Note from Connie: Treasure your eyes by scaling back bigtime on those culprit carbs. That's right! SUGAR SHOCK! Blog researcher/writer Jennifer Moore will bring you up to date on one more study, which points to one harmful result we don't hear about much -- your eyesight.

Here's yet another reason to cut back or completely avoid sugary foods and quickie carbs: Too many of them may increase a person's risk of losing his or her sight, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers, led by Allen Taylor, Ph.D., of Tufts University, found that people whose diets were highest in simple carbs with high glycemic indexes -- that is, foods that cause dramatic spikes in blood sugar levels -- were a startling 40% more likely to develop the condition macular degeneration than their counterparts that don't eat a lot of high GI foods.

It's important to note that this study group was large -- the researchers looked at the diet habits of 4,099 people aged 55 to 80. They also took into account such factors as age, education and BMI.

In case you don't know, macular degeneration is a disease in which cells in the retina break down, and it's the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over 65.

Thanks to Nicholas Bakalar of the New York Times for alerting us to this important research.

By Jennifer Moore for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog