For all of my friends who are learning to cope so well with aging macular degeneration and other eye diseases, I have just learned yet another way we can all help those who are striving so hard to cope with new problems.

As many of you have noted in previous e-mails to me, I have found it especially helpful in dealing with the trauma of losing eyesight to be positive and upbeat. Somehow it truly makes me feel better to try to make others feel better, either by giving them hope, ideas, or finding ways that they, too, can help others.

I just found not only a great way to help others, be an “influencer” in this community, be at the forefront of treatment, AND receive some monetary compensation for it at the same time.

I received a message from a really great guy, Douglas Lowell, who is president of Find a Cure Panel and another company, Sample Czar. Mr. Lowell told me about a panel discussion that’s coming up, and asked me to participate in it. Since it’s done by phone with me in the comfort of my own home, at a specific time that’s helpful and convenient for me, I said sure I’d be happy to do it.

So I’m going to be on a panel on Oct. 8 and I’m inviting you to join me as well.

It’s for patient research for Wet AMD. Hey, there’s a great idea in the first place. Surgeons are wonderful, ophthalmologists are truly special, but if you want real research, isn’t it best to hear from the afflicted person as well?

The Find A Cure Panel specializes in patient research for rare and serious diseases and now has some new patient research going on for wet AMD. If you want to help, and if you live in the United States, are at least 60 years old (don’t you love it when you finally have a company that wants to hear from senior citizens???) and your experience with eye injections is recent, you can give him a call and sign up.

Since it is a panel discussion for Find a Cure, you also can not have a vision monitoring app on your phone.

This discussion is quick and easy. One call, about one hour, with one moderator and you talking about your experience and interest in new treatment and new technologies for Wet AMD.

If you’re interested, call, make the appointment and participate, are you ready????? the Find a Cure Panel company will actually pay you $200!!!! What could be better? Helping others and getting paid for it as well. Even if you don’t want the $200, and don’t want to keep it accept it anyway, and make a donation to a help source of your choice for someone with AMD.

If you’re interested in participating, please contact FACP at info@findacurepanel.com and reference FACP/WetAMD1021.

You have to hurry, there are only a few opportunities available for this research panel

AMD isn’t easy, as we all know. But helping someone else who has it is.

MANALAPAN – Beans, be they red, brown, black or yellow. Probably one of the most versatile of vegetables, and powerful as well. Sharese Porter, PhD, MPH, CHES, and senior program coordinator supervisor for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Burlington and Monmouth counties is presenting a morning program on the Power of the Bean Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 10:30 a.m.

The program is presented by the Monmouth County Library, and will be available on Zoom at no cost. Registration and internet access are required and registration must be completed by noon Monday, Sept. 27. Registration is available at www.MonmouthCountyLib.org on the Upcoming Events list. Information on access will be e-mailed to each registrant between 3 and 4 p.m. Monday.

Porter will highlight how beans can be included in a dish or served as a filling and nutritious meal on their own. She will also explain the numerous healthy benefits of this protein rich vegetable and offer stories on how it is included in cultures around the world.

With a great supply of lettuce, thanks to very generous and bountiful farmer friends, I wanted to do something with an overabundance of lettuce, one of those green vegetables of great for AMD and other eye diseases. I came up with a recipe for Lettuce Soup that is also an open invitation to your own creativity and personal likes.

The basic recipe, 4 servings, is:

1 cup chopped onions

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 teaspoon ground coriander

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup diced (1/3 inch) peeled potato

8 cups coarsely chopped lettuce leaves including ribs

3 cups water

Cook onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add coriander, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, another minute or so.

Stir in potato, lettuce, and water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potato is very tender, about 10 minutes.

Let it cool a bit for easier blending, then purée soup in batches in a blender. Put back into 2- to 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a simmer, whisk in remaining tablespoon butter and salt and pepper to taste.

Now that’s the main recipe and a great way to use up those outer lettuce leaves and ribs you sometimes simply toss out.

Pureeing works wonders!

It’s versatile! Here some ideas you can also try, depending on your personal likes:

Substitute chicken broth or vegetable broth for water.

Use whatever lettuce or greens you have in plenty…this works with arugula, spinach, watercress and all kinds of lettuce. The soup comes out a creamy, delightful green.

Have fun with the herbs! Try rosemary, cilantro, thyme or basil.

Think red, green, blue, yellow and orange. Add fish from cold waters nuts and eggs. Maybe some lean red meat and poultry.

That’s the best and easiest way to know which foods are particularly good for eyesight and good healthy eye care.

I’ve learned a lot more about food since having aging macular degeneration. In addition to taking AREDS2, I’ve also changed my diet considerably, with an accent on the reds, greens, blues, yellow and orange colored fruits and vegetables.

At the same time, I have had 11 injections, each four weeks apart. To the shock of the ophthalmologist who is so excellent and knowledgeable about his specialty, as well as to myself, my eyesight has not gotten any worse.

In fact, the doctor, who had told me in the very beginning he was just hopeful of preventing my condition from getting any worse but believing it was too far advanced for him to do anything to improve it, it really seems to be to be somewhat less pronounced.

Either that, or I’m getting used to a new way of seeing the world. But the doctor’s inspections also show a slight improvement.

All of which begs the question: is it because of the Eleya injections and a wonderful ophthalmologist or is my change of diet helping?

As curious as I am about almost everything, the answer to my own question is not important to me. I don’t want to stop either process, the injections or the diet, to find out which it is. I’m quite comfortable right now knowing things aren’t as bad as they were, they haven’t gotten any worse.

If it’s one or the other doesn’t make any difference. I’m continuing on both.

Which brings me to exactly which foods are best? It’s easy to say fruits and vegetables, lots of cold water fish and nuts of all kinds, and yes, lean beef as well. Pretty much runs the gamut.

But the other good news is, the same diet that helps your eyes is the one that also helps your heart, as well as the rest of your body. The reason the same foods help your eyes and heart is because your eyes depend on those little arteries for their supply of oxygen and nutrients in the same way the heart depends on much larger arteries for the same thing.

Last year, 2020, was The Year of the Eye. To celebrate it, the American Academy of Ophthalmology made a lists of the top 20 vision-healthy foods. If they list them by color, the orange fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamin A, probably the best known eye-healthy nutrient of all. It’s the one that helps your retina turn those light rays into images we can see.

It also keeps the eye moist so there’s no dry eye problem. So think carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, apricots.

Included among the good yellow things to eat, there are tangerines and oranges, lemons and grapefruit, along with peaches. All are full of Vitamin C, an antioxidant that protects the body from damage from all the bad things we eat and enjoy like fried foods and even tobacco smoke and other things in the environment.

Think red and you come up with beets and apples, tomatoes and strawberries, along with red peppers. All are antioxidant filled so could delay AMD as well as cataracts. Blues are all those luscious berries, especially blueberries, the best of all..

Green of course is the big, wonderful color that’s filled with Vitamin E, that antioxidant that helps keep cells healthy. Think of all the varieties of lettuce, the greener the better, avocado, broccoli, turnip and radish greens, peas, collards, kale, spinach and string beans. These are all particularly great for the macula, that tissue behind the eye that gives us our detailed vision. Eggs are not green except for Dr. Spock’s with his ham, but they’re also full of the lutein and zeaxanthin antioxidants particularly great for the macula.

So they are the colors. Add cold water fish, like sardines and tuna, halibut and trout. Perhaps oysters for a treat.. Or some poultry of any kind. But especially chicken. Try lots of almonds or walnuts, even sunflower seeds, and then think about some foods that will ensure you have enough of the mineral zinc in your body. Zinc seems to help keep the eyes from damage from light. But too much zinc can take away from the copper in your body which you really do need for all those red blood cells. So it’s best to take both, and that can be found in black-eyed peas, kidney and lima beans and pretty much any other kind of bean.

Keeping or improving eyesight makes your view of the world come out in so much more beautiful color!. Use color to protect your vision.

Hard to believe, but I am actually looking forward to my 11th eye injection that is keeping my aging macular degeneration at bay. It’s my guess once again, before I step into the ophthalmologist’s office and get the scientific results from all the tests and wisdom of my doctor. But I certainly seems I am not seeing any worse than I did four weeks ago. And I also want to ask him about the night vision glasses my thoughtful son-in-law purchased for me. Not for after dark, but to use instead of sunglasses. They worked wonders for me to my great surprise, but before I wholeheartedly recommend others try them, I want to ask my eye surgeon what he thinks of them to be certain I’m not causing any other problems by wearing them when I’m out in daylight.

I think it’s important to have confidence in your surgeon if you’re trusting him to inject a needle in your eye. I don’t care if he’s personable and a conversationalist, though mine is; I simply want him to have a steady hand and know exactly what he’s doing. I am definitely remembering this month that I cannot talk to him while he’s prepping me for the injection since moving my facial muscles affects the muscles around my eye as well and can cause a problem. He was polite, kind and courteous, but quite firm when he told me that last month. I guess I shouldn’t feel as relaxed and confident as I do.

So I’m celebrating this next injection, celebrating the fact my eyesight is not getting any worse and is even getting slightly better. That’s a wonderful, almost miraculous achievement because I had been advised at the very beginning that since my AMD came on so quickly and was so severe, the doctor’s only real hope was that he could arrest further progress. Yet it has improved some over the months. All of that is cause enough for great celebration. What better way to do it than with a shiny, happy looking little red berry that can be enjoyed in so many different ways and help so many parts of the body at the same time. But best for eye health!

Some people call it a magical fruit. Some people only associate it with Christmas and think of it as festive. Others look at it as an anti-aging medication because eating them on a regular frequent basis can slow down the aging process. We in New Jersey think it’s a great product to grow, given all our bogs in south Jersey and the fact we’re first or second in the nation…depending on who’s doing the research…on growing them.

All of this is true, but the really important thing is: cranberries are great for eyesight. That’s because it is a little berry, a cousin of the blueberry, that is cram pack full of antioxidants, primarily Vitamin C. That’s what helps keep the collagen in your cornea healthy. It’s also been known to reduce the risk of AMD as well as cataracts.

Cranberry juice is great to drink and has all the antioxidants and vitamins as the dried little berry. Fresh, the tiny little red berry is shiny and pretty, but rather sour to the taste. Maybe that’s because of all the iron, calcium and potassium along with Vitamin B it packs into it along with all that Vitamin C.

But loaded with all those good things, it’s even good for so much more than the eyes, so you really can’t go wrong trying some recipes, eating them by the handful, mixing them in your oatmeal or fruit salads, or even in lettuce and tomato salads.

For instance, cranberries have great therapeutic impacts on skin. It’s packed with all those things that help form collagen, the thing that keeps skin soft and youthful looking. It’s a real boon for oily skin and acne, what with all those antiseptic properties packed into the little red beauties. Cranberry juice can be used as a face mask by taking some orange peel, a teaspoon or so of honey, and some cranberry juice, mixing them all together in a blender and applying to the face for 20 minutes or so before washing clear again. Or make a pulp of cranberries, and smear it on your face, put a towel over your head and breathe in the steam from a tea kettle for a facial steam. Great for the skin, be sure you keep it out of your eyes though, it’s only good for the eyes when taken internally.

Eating cranberries helps oral hygiene by helping treat plaque formatting and gum disease. Among some of their other benefits are helping prevent kidney stones, keeping the heart in good shape even if one doesn’t exercise much, and helping lower cholesterol. With little caloric content, of course it’s great for weight loss and helps metabolism and digestion. Many say it helps fight infection, and even helps treat dandruff and other scalp problems. Try applying some cranberry juice on your scalp for a while before showering and shampooing and see if that helps cut dandruff over time.

Whether it’s all fact hasn’t been scientifically declared officially yet, but what matter? Cranberries are a tough little fruit loaded with antioxidants that help the eyes, and by the way, are known to be pretty terrific for other parts of the body as well.

I found a great easy recipe for Cranberry Power Bites on a big bag of Ocean Spray dried cranberries I picked up and think it’s worth sharing for its easy to make and is fun to nibble on: Here it is:

2 Cups old-fashioned oats

1 Cup dried cranberries

1 Cup nut butter (or any plain or flavored kind)

½ Cup white chocolate chips (even regular chocolate will do, just not as pretty)

1 C coconut flakes

2 t. vanilla extract

2/3 Cup honey (the perfect food, never goes bad!)

½ T. Salt (which I always omit)

Put them all together in a big bowl, mix really well. With a tablespoon, scoop it all out and roll into a big ball. Moisten your hands maybe with a bit of that butter, melted, or some orange juice, and form little balls. That’s it! I chill it in the refrigerator to make it firmer and there you have it!. Easier than baked cookies!

I love Saturdays down the Jersey Shore … anytime, but between now and just before Thanksgiving, there are many towns that have farmer’s markets where farmers and their families…farming is truly a family business…bring their wonderful colorful displays of fresh fruits and vegetables.

My favorite is the Farmer’s Market in Highlands where I can stock up on the end of summer’s bounty while at the same time get the first gourds and squash of the fall season.

I spend a couple of hours washing them all, separating the radish from their leaves so I can use the leaves in a vegetable stock, cutting up the celery and saving the tough bottoms and leafy ends for that same stock, slicing some celery into strips and storing it upright in water so I have an easy healthy snack …have I mentioned before that celery is the only food that is not only non-caloric but negative caloric???

It burns energy to chew celery, so it even burns a calorie or two while you’re eating it!

The cucumbers I simply wash and keep in the refrigerator for easy slicing as needed, the radish I wash , trim and pop into a container, again for a quick and easy snack, and the lettuce I take off the outer leaves, again for that stock and wrap in damp paper towels ready for salad making.

If I need onions, I chop some of them as well along with string beans I save to put in the stock after I’ve strained the other veggies out. The soup-making veggies I put in the pot with water, some garlic, a sliced apple (for a bit of sweetness) and perhaps a sweet potato for sweetness and a bit of thickener, and let it brew for a couple of hours.

After I strain it, I either mince up the veggies, toss in the string beans and pour them back in the stock, or simply freeze the stock for future use. If there’s leftover chicken or beef or pork one night, the stock’s already ready for a meat soup with perhaps rice or pasta in it.

If I have kale, there are a couple of smoothies that make great use and a delicious drink out of this vegetable loaded with carotenoids. Here are a couple of great ones in “Eat Right for Your Sight “, a wonderful recipe book put out by the Macular Degeneration Foundation, who are doing great things for promotion of all causes that help macular victims get some pretty terrific information and help.

Kale and Pomegranate Smoothie

1 banana

2 kale leaves, no stems

1 C blueberries

2 C pomegranate juice

1 T lime juice.

Toss them all in the blender, puree until smooth, chill and serve. Makes 2 Cups, has lots of Vitamins A C and E, along with zinc and beta carotene.

Kale Banana Smoothie

1 C. chopped kale

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 banana

½ C apple juice

¼ cup water

½ cup ice

1 T. lime juice

1 t. wheat germ, ground flaxseed or oat bran.

Toss it all in the blender until smooth, chill and serve. Makes 2 Cups

Sometimes you just have to think of desserts and sometimes you have to have some simple ones available just in case.

That’s the case with Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. Strawberries are great in providing a lot of Vitamin C, potassium, folic acid, fiber and a lot of beta carotene and even some lutein.

The original recipe calls for agave nectar as the sweetener used with strawberries and yogurt, but you might want to substitute honey instead. Or use a simple syrup. Or if you’re daring, maybe maple syrup for yet another taste.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

3 Cups chopped Straw berries

1 1/3 Cups low-fat plain yogurt

¼ Cup agave nectar or some other sweetener.

Put them all in a food processor until smooth. Put into a container (9X13” works great) and refreeze, stirring every hour until it’s firm around the edges, around four hours. Just before serving, put back into the food processor and process until smooth again.

That’s it! Serve pretty glass dishes, perhaps with a sprig of mint on top.

If you have blueberries instead, use 3 Cups of fruit, 2 Cups yogurt, ½ Cup sugar and add ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract, omitting the agave. Follow the same freezing and processing procedures.

Blueberries will add fiber, manganese and antioxidants along with all that blue beauty of the fruit.

Even quicker, easier, and full of Vitamin C and beta carotene are Sweet Oranges. Couldn’t be simpler, yet elegant and different.

Sweet Oranges

4 navel oranges, peeled

2 Tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

Cinnamon

Simply slice the peeled oranges in half, dust with cinnamon and sugar and serve.

How easy is that?

For all my friends in Georgia the Peach State, why not try Peach Soup and take advantage of those lush, furry and sweet peaches that grow so well there. It’s called the Peach State for good reason, and the Georgians are quite proud of it as they should be. It’s been recognized that Georgia-grown peaches for some reason are really superior to all others not only in flavor but in texture and appearances, to say nothing of all those nutrients packed in. Peaches are also the state fruit of Georgia, and they’re even featured on the Georgia state quarters. I like peanuts as well, but Peach State sounds so much better than Goober State, though that is still the official crop of the state.

Peach Soup

1 Lb. Peaches, pitted and halved (about 2 cups, either fresh or frozen)

2 Cups yogurt

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon lemon juice.

Combine in a blender until smooth. Serve in soup bowls, with perhaps a few blueberries sprinkled on top, or a sprig of mint.

Nuts of any kind are one of the best sources of Vitamin E which is one of the vitamins so necessary for eye health as well as help in preventing further damage from AMD. They’re also easily available, most recipes can intermix whichever nuts are preferable or available, and most can also be stored in airtight tins. Nut recipes for candies, clusters, cookies and of course Baklava, make wonderful holiday gifts and are a great way to spend an afternoon which the children, enabling them to have a hand in the recipe making.

One of the easiest is CANDIED WALNUTS

Simply mix 1 Cup walnuts or pecans, ¼ Cup of sugar and a Tablespoon of butter in a heated skillet; continue to heat, stirring constantly for another 5 minutes until all the sugar is melted.

Pour out mixture on parchment paper and begin working at once to spread them out in a single layer before they harden. In another seven minutes or so, they’re ready to eat at once or store in airtight tins for later snacking or gift giving.

Sugar And Spice Nuts

1 egg white, beaten

½ Cup brown sugar, tightly packed

1 C salted cashews

1 Cup dry roasted peanuts

1 Cup pecans

¼ t. cinnamon

¼ t. cayenne pepper

½ Cup sugar

Mix together cinnamon, pepper, sugar, set aside

Put nuts in a bowl, fold in egg white to ensure nuts are all covered, sprinkle with sugar mixture.

Bake on greased cookie sheet at 300 degrees, about 18-20 minutes. Cool and store in airtight container.

EASY Chocolate Peanut Clusters

2 Cups chocolate chips

1 C. salted peanuts

½ t vanilla.

Melt chips , blend with nuts in bowl. Scoop out spoon sizes on parchment paper, and refrigerate until hardened.

IRRESISTIBLE ALMONDS

1 egg white, beaten until frothy

4 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cardamom

¼ t. ground cloves

½ teas. black pepper

½ t. salt (I generally omit this)

¼ t. cayenne

2 Cups whole unsalted almonds

Preheat over to 350 degrees, Combine spices in bowl. Toss almonds in the egg white, then add spice mix and stir well.

Spread mixture in single layer on baking sheet, bake about 15-30 minutes until lightly browned and toasted., stirring once halfway through. Cool on rack.

We’ll save Baklava for another day! A wonderful holiday treat, includes honey the perfect natural food.

Not sure how this is going to work out, but I have been doing so many recipes, my tech guru suggested that I start doing the videos… Which I couldn’t! So he has put my recipes into action!

Broccoli is one of those gorgeous green vegetables that is packed with lutein and zeaxathin, two of the most important nutrients for eye care and prevention of retina oxidation and age-related degeneration. It also contains something else called sulforaphane which some medical researchers are saying could prevent blindness.

Some of the other wonderful things about broccoli are the fact it’s low in calories, rich in fiber, contains lots of vitamins and minerals, and seems to also have some other compounds that help in anticancer activity. Not sure that last one is factual, but certainly does no harm.

Then there is seafood, long since known for its advantageous benefits for eye health. Salmon and sardines are probably best known for fighting AMD, but don’t discount the ever popular shrimp either. It too is loaded with zinc, another great mineral for eye care. Granted, to ensure the most zinc, it’s best to steam, boil or poach fish, but even grilling, baking or roasting provides so many benefits.

Here’s a great recipe for putting the two together, creating a delicious meal on its own, perhaps with a baked sweet potato if you must. Easy to prepare, so much fun to enjoy!

Four fast, easy, cheap and HEALTHY Salads that you can make at home