Lutein, the legendary "Ten-fold tonic pill"?

How many rumors about lutein have you heard?

Rumor has it that lutein can not only prevent and treat myopia in adolescents, but also relieve visual fatigue among "white-collar workers", prevent age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, and even whiten the skin and reduce wrinkles... It is simply omnipotent and can be called the "ten-in-one tonic pill" in the nutrition world. Does such an all-round nutritional supplement really exist?

Let us first understand what lutein is.

Lutein is a naturally occurring carotenoid, a fat-soluble yellow or orange pigment found primarily in green leafy vegetables, yellow fruits, and some flowers.

Image source: Pixabay

In the human body, lutein is concentrated in the macular area of ​​the eye to form macular pigment, which not only acts as a resident antioxidant to scavenge free radicals and reduce damage caused by oxidative stress, but also acts as a "filter" to protect the eyes from blue light damage.

01Can lutein prevent myopia?

It seems that lutein is indeed a good thing. Many parents also choose to buy lutein for their children to prevent myopia. This is also the most enthusiastic promotion of lutein merchants - relieve visual fatigue and prevent myopia!

So, can lutein really be used to prevent or treat myopia among teenagers, a problem that concerns the whole society?

The answer is not what we want. Although lutein helps delay and improve eye aging, and protects the macula from damage caused by blue light and ultraviolet rays, there is no direct scientific evidence to show that lutein can prevent myopia, and there is no scientific research to prove that lutein can relieve visual fatigue.

Therefore, parents who plan to supplement their children with lutein to prevent myopia may reconsider. Without maintaining good eye habits and sufficient outdoor activity time, it may be useless to supplement.

Image source: Pixabay

02What is the use of lutein?

If it can’t even prevent myopia, then what about those other functions, such as preventing cataracts, anti-aging, protecting blood vessels, protecting skin, etc.? Are these functions that sound even more outrageous true?

This requires a specific analysis of the specific functions. Without further ado, here is the table:

In general, lutein has significant benefits for eye health (especially macular degeneration and cataracts); it has the potential to improve cognitive function and neurodegenerative diseases; it may improve osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease; and it also has a certain protective effect on skin health, but the effect is better with good sun protection.

03Who needs to make up for it? How to make up for it?

Lutein seems to reveal a hint of excellence in its unreliability. As a nutritional supplement, lutein is undoubtedly qualified. So who needs to supplement lutein?

Lutein is mainly found in green leafy vegetables, yellow fruits and some flowers. Foods rich in lutein include marigold, leek, amaranth, sweet chestnut pumpkin, celery leaves, coriander, spinach, Chinese cabbage, water spinach, shallot, broccoli, pistachio, pea sprouts, etc. For healthy people with a balanced diet, the intake of lutein is sufficient and no additional supplement is needed.

According to the "2023 Edition of Dietary Reference Intakes for Chinese Residents", people who have insufficient vegetable and fruit intake or poor absorption for a long time, especially middle-aged and elderly people, can consider taking lutein supplements, 10 mg per day.

Lutein gummies are a convenient way to supplement. When purchasing, we should pay attention to the dosage of lutein to see if it provides enough lutein. In addition, we need to pay attention to the ingredients to see if there are too many unnecessary additives.

Some multivitamins already contain lutein. When supplementing vitamins, you should carefully read the product instructions to avoid repeated and excessive supplementation.

In addition, lutein is fat-soluble, and like other fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, and K), it is best taken after meals to improve absorption efficiency.

Source: Chongqing Science and Technology Museum

Author: He Wenting, Master of Biomedical Engineering

Review experts: Huang He, Li Chunli, Xu Xiaoping

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