CLEVER Eye Institute

Many people have relied on "Heart Healthy" food labeling to help them select foods that reduce cholesterol. Now, people with concerns about eating "Eye Healthy" foods can rely on the Eye Q food certification program!

What is the Eye Q Program?

The Eye Q program is designed to help consumers identify foods that have nutrients that are known to be associated with good eye health. The program has two parts. The first part involves working with food growers, food producers, grocers, chefs, nutritionists, and others in the food industry in order to certify eye healthy food products. This certification allows each product to display the "Certified Eye Healthy" label. The second part of the program is to calculate the nutrition-based "Eye Q" score for each product, so that consumers understand the relative value of the food and can mor easily compare food choices while shopping and planning meals.

How is the Eye Q Score found?

Eye health is determined by many different nutrients available in foods. Some of these nutrients have a beneficial effect on eye health, while other nutrients can have a negative effect. The Eye Q score is determined by a complex set of equations that reference the total amount of each nutrient in a given serving size, and these equations also take into consideration the relative importance of each nutrient to eye health. For example, it is known that foods rich in omega-3, lutein, beta carotene, and other important nutrients are highly beneficial for good eye health. However, some foods may have too much cholesterol, sugar, salt, and saturated fats, which have a negative effect on your eye health. These should be eaten in limited amounts or not at all. Altogether, the Eye Q score is determined from the availability of 28 different nutrients in the foods you eat. The score is then calculated to have a value between 0 and 200 with 100 Eye Q points being the threshold for good eye health. Only foods that have more than 100 Eye Q points are allowed to display the Eye Q eye healthy certification label.

If I eat three servings of a specific food, does that mean the Eye Q Score also goes up by a factor of three?

No. You cannot multiple or add together the Eye Q score based on the number of servings you eat and compute an accurate Eye Q score for the total nutrient value. There are several reasons for this. 1) The Eye Q score is ultimately designed to be a relative ranking of the benefits of a single portion of a food. Multiplying a ranking is not mathematically valid in this case. 2) The algorithms used to generate Eye Q are by necessity based in part on log scales, and linear operations on a log scale do not produce the expected result as if the scale were linear. 3) Each food product is a combination of "good" and "bad" nutrients. Simply multiplying the portion size not only increases the good aspects, but it also increases the bad aspects of a food to the point where a larger portion size is unhealthy.

 

Whenever there is a specific need to recalculate the portion size of a food, such as for recertification purposes, or for research purposes, it must be done using the algorithms at CLEVER so that a valid result is produced.

 

We believe it is permissable to add together Eye Q scores for single servings of various foods you've eaten over time (say over a week) as a simple means of tracking your total intake of eye healthy foods (choosing to eat high Eye Q foods is better for you and will generate a larger cumulative Eye Q score than eating the same number of portions of low Eye Q foods), but remember this approach is essentially a way of tracking the relative ranking of foods and it is not specifically tracking your absolute total intake of nutrients.

My doctor told me to eat more foods that are "eye healthy". How does the Eye Q program help me do that?

The Eye Q score is designed to simplify the complexity of having many different nutrients that may be both good and bad for your eye health, and provide you with a single number that shows the ranking of the food in terms of eye health. You can look for the Eye Q labeling for certified foods, and then use the number of points in the Eye Q score to compare foods or to track your eye healthy eating habits over time. For example, you might want to set a personal goal for the total number of Eye Q points you'll eat over the course of a week. With each week, you can try new foods with higher Eye Q scores and see if you can improve and maintain your weekly total score over the course of several months. As you become more familiar with the Eye Q score, you will see that you can eat a variety of foods for eye health. You do not have to limit your diet to eating only kale and spinach (Unless you like them!). There are many different whole foods and commercially processed food products that are certified as eye healthy. In fact, we advocate a well-rounded diet to achieve optimum eye health, because no single food has all of the necessary nutrients you may need. At this early stage of introduction, the Eye Q program is not widely known. However, as time goes on, we believe that more food producers will begin to display the Eye Q "Certified Eye Healthy" label on their products. This will help you to identify those foods that meet your needs. In the meantime, we will be publishing the Eye Q scores of many different whole foods so that consumers can learn the benefits of fresh produce at their local grocery stores and markets.

Is the Eye Q program intended only for people with eye problems?

The Eye Q program can benefit anyone interested in good eye health. The greatest benefit will likely be found in those people with existing eye disease, people who have poor nutrition or nutritional diseases, and older adults. One rule of thumb is that if you currently take vitamins for your eyes, you should also be using Eye Q to select the foods you eat. However, Eye Q is for everyone, and we even certify foods intended specifically for infants and babies.

What are some common eye diseases that may benefit from improved nutrition?

Some common diseases include dry eye syndrome, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and even glaucoma. Also if you have system diseases such as hypertension and high cholesterol, these can have a significant damaging effect on ypour eyes and you should be controlling those conditions through better nutrition, as well as with medication as prescribed by your doctor and excercise whenever possible. There are actually a variety of eye conditions that can benefit from better nutrition, although most disease are not due to poor nutrition alone and cannot be cured through nutrition alone. For many older adults, eye doctors often recommend that their patients use AREDS vitamins* to supplement their diet. However, acquiring nutrients directly from foods is the preferred method to get all of the nutritional benefits your require for good health. You should discuss the benefits of eating eye healthy foods with your eye doctor or primary care physician during your next office visit. Remember that it is true that you are what you eat! Your body needs essential nutrients from the foods you eat in order to stay healthy.

*AREDS refers to the Age-Related Eye Disease Study conducted with funding from the National Eye Institute (NEI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Much of what we know about nutrition and the eye has come about from this study and others like it.

What does the Eye Q certification labeling look like?

Below is an example of one of the labels used to certify a food product. There are other variations that may be found, depending in part on the type of packaging used. You should click the button at the bottom of the page to take you to the page that shows other examples of the Eye Q certification label.