First off, let’s get underway by putting to rest some old wives tales about carrots and other foods that people, in the past, believed improved vision and even mental acuity. Carrots do not improve eyesight, this popular myth was most likely formed because health experts in the past were taken out of context, or were simply pretending to have answers in order to appear as better experts.

The fact is that good nutrition is good for your eyesight, as is anything that increases circulation to the eyes. In this, carrots are as good as several other foods which provide the right nourishment and every aspect of the body benefits from basic nutrition. Some unfortunate sufferers of cataracts and other sight disorders consume vast amounts of carrots everyday in the vain hope that they may see some improvement, unfortunately, these vegetables will never cure such severe disorders or even remove your reliance on glasses.

Those whose vision has already degenerated to this level will have to wait on further advances within the field of medical technology, but that doesn’t mean that there is no benefit to eating healthily. On the contrary, it has been clearly proven that a healthy diet can at least slow ongoing degeneration and this is where salmon, garlic, eggs and antioxidant rich vegetables come in.

We’ve known for a long time that dark chocolate has a positive effect on vision, but originally it was categorised in much the same league as the aforementioned vegetables, which it now seems was a disservice to the value of chocolate. Women and children everywhere will be pleased to note that dark chocolate provides a marked improvement in both vision and mental acuity, although the effects are, naturally, temporary and not cumulative.

A study undertaken in May of 2011 by the University of Reading in England took 30 young, healthy adults and divided the group in two. One half was fed a good volume of white chocolate and the other half the dark variety. A week later, the group was called back and their roles were reversed, after which the researchers determined that within two hours of consuming the dark chocolate, the subjects displayed notable improvements to vision and cognition.

Cocoa flavanols or CF’s in cacao beans found in dark chocolate contains antioxidants (white chocolate contains small amounts of these) and it is believed that they cause increased circulation to the retina and brain – providing a boost to the attributes in that area within approximately two hours. So there you have it, out with carrots and in with dark chocolate – another win for modern science in anyone’s book. 

Warren Kings is an experienced online content writer and has a vast interest in eye care, iLasik, how to eat helthy and iLASIK surgery. This article was written by a guest author. Would you like to write for us?