Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Boston, Mass., have found that the higher the carbohydrate intake, the higher the odds of developing a certain type of cataract among a group of women aged 53 to 73 years. When damaged proteins gather within one or both of the eye lenses, the resulting area that becomes cloudy, or opaque, is called cataract.
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 sub-study of the federally funded Nurses' Health Study.