Vitamins and your eyes

Today, I am going to try and answer some of the questions on vitamins that members of the United for Vision club have asked. They are related to the role of vitamins in the body and in the eye.

“Is Garri all right for the eye?” This question has been asked many times. Badly processed garri or other derivatives of cassava are toxic to the entire body including the eyes because of the high content of the chemical linamarin, which is converted to cyanide in the tissues. The cyanide displaces the vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) in the body leading to damage to the nerves and may cause difficulty in walking as well as blindness. Garri and other cassava products, which are well processed and eaten with adequate amounts of proteins and vitamins, constitute no health hazard to the patron.

“Is yeast good for the eyes?” Yeast tablets or powder contain water-soluble vitamins B1 and B2. From this point of view, yeast is good for the eyes.

“There are a lot of vitamin supplements in circulation. These are mostly imported from North America and Europe. How useful are they for the maintenance of a healthy body and eyes?” Over a dozen people have asked me this question in the last four weeks.Therefore, I will go some lengths in answering the question.

Vitamins are essential substances, which cannot be manufactured in the body but needed in small amounts by the body to work properly and for growth and development. There are two types of vitamins: fat-soluble and water-soluble.

Water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body and have to be taken more frequently. If more than needed is ingested, the body gets rid of the extra vitamins through the urine, so generally, they aren’t harmful when taken in large quantities. Water-soluble vitamins are found in fruits, vegetables and grains. They can be destroyed by heat or by being exposed to the air. They can also be lost in the water used for cooking.

Fat-soluble vitamins are found mainly in fatty foods such as animal fats, vegetable oils, dairy foods, liver and oily fish. Even though the body needs these vitamins every day to work properly, one does not need to eat foods containing the vitamins every day because, they are stored in the liver and fatty tissues for future use. Excessive intake can be harmful.

If we eat a normal and balanced diet we should have all the vitamins we need. There are, however, people who are ill or cannot eat at all; those restricted to some special diets and those who need more than usual quantities of some vitamins that must have vitamin supplement.

A nutritionist should tailor the type of supplement to the deficiency envisaged. There is no use just giving large quantities of some vitamins and little of others. Therefore buying vitamin supplements off the shelves is quite often a waste of money.

Many of these well packaged, exotic vitamin products imported into the country are of little value to many of the people who use them because they are supplements for deficiencies observed in the diets in the countries of manufacture. In many of these countries they eat highly processed or refined foods and some of the vitamins would have been removed during the processing or during the period of long storage. Even vegetables and fruits looking so alluring have been grown with non-natural fertilizers and quite often have little food value. These people therefore need vitamin supplements to make up for the deficiencies in their diet!

Interestingly those who can afford the often-ridiculous costs of these supplements don’t really need them because they have access to good and natural foods, vegetables and fruits. Unfortunately those who are in need of additional vitamin supplements cannot really afford them.

“Can one take an overdose of vitamins and are there harmful consequences of overdose?” Yes excessive intake of the fat-soluble vitamins can damage the liver and cause other serious problems.