By Wendy Haaf
If you have diabetes, eating two servings of oily fish a week might halve your chances of developing sight-threatening complications of the disease, according to study results reported in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Researchers tracked almost 3,500 people aged 55 to 80 with Type 2 diabetes who were involved in a trial investigating whether the Mediterranean diet reduces risk for heart disease. During follow-up—which averaged six years—69 participants developed complications of diabetic retinopathy serious enough to require treatment. However, after adjusting for factors such as age and sex, these events were 48 per cent less common among people who reported consuming at least 500 mg weekly of omega-3 fats (equivalent to two servings of oily fish, such as salmon, trout, tuna, sardines, and herring) than among participants with lower intakes of the nutrient.
Photo: iStock/Coloroftime (woman) and kcline (salmon).