A study in the January issue of The Archives of Ophthalmology enrolled more than 35,000 women who were followed for an average of 10 years.
After statistically adjusting for smoking, alcohol use, body mass index and other variables, the researchers found that the more vitamin E and lutein the women used, the less likely they were to have cataracts. Compared with the one-fifth of women who consumed the least antioxidants, the one-fifth who consumed the most reduced their risk for cataracts by 14% with vitamin E and 18%t with lutein.