Did You Know Christmas Dinner is Good For Your Eyes? #EyeFood

#EyeFood is our monthly spot for delicious, eye-friendly recipes to help boost all-round eye health.

It’s the time of year for family get-togethers and a whole lot of delicious food! The even better news is that a great deal of your Christmas dinner is healthy for your eyes and with our tips, you can make it even better for your eyes!

Starter

A traditional starter for many on Christmas Day is a prawn cocktail, made with prawns, lettuce in a Marie Rose sauce. Prawns, like most fish, are high in omega-three, fatty acids that help regulate blood pressure, heart rate, blood clotting and eye health.

To make your prawn cocktail, even more eye-friendly this year, make sure to add a healthy helping of lettuce or even some grated carrot to make it even more festive!

Main Course

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a turkey, so it’s no wonder it’s something just about everyone looks forward to eating. And you can relax about eating it because turkey is full of zinc, an important element that helps antioxidants work – reducing the number of free radicals and helping the body absorb vitamin A.

But what about your Christmas dinner trimmings? Well here’s a handy breakdown of the best eye-friendly extras:

Potatoes are a good source of carbohydrate and they are almost fat-free. The most popular way of cooking them at Christmas is to roast them, which can be the least healthy due to the oil or fat needed. Why not try baking them this year? Or how about using sweet potatoes instead ­– they contain vitamin A, which is good for eye health as it helps you fight viruses and bacteria.

Vegetables really come into their own on your Christmas dinner plate and they help add a healthy note too. Most vegetables contain all the minerals and vitamins we need to care for our eyes correctly, some that can help particularly at Christmas are brussels sprouts. They’re not everyone’s favourite it’s true, but they are a great source of folate and vitamin C, which help protect you from heart disease and cancer. Why not throw on some steamed broccoli for vitamin E this year, or everyone’s favourite eye-friendly vegetable, carrots?

Let’s not forget stuffing. Most families will be serving a sausage meat stuffing, although a healthier alternative could be chestnut or fruit-based stuffing, which is a good source of potassium. Try it, they’re delicious we promise!

Pudding

Saving the best until last, we have the unmissable Christmas pudding. It is, believe it or not, low in fat but high in carbohydrate. The good news it provides fibre, B vitamins, potassium, iron and calcium. What with cream and brandy butter and the rest, it isn’t all good news when it comes to Christmas pudding, but it is Christmas after all!

We hope you enjoyed this Christmas edition to #EyeFood. From everyone here at Eye Academy, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!