EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/115557
March 2013 EW IN OTHER NEWS 193 Reviewing "Feast Your Eyes" by Faith A. Hayden EyeWorld Contributing Writer An ophthalmologist turned author pens eye health cookbook F east your eyes on this: A full-color, 137-page cookbook with vibrant images of skate wings glistening with olive oil, rosy salmon dusted with pepper and topped with plump bits of roe, and muscles and prawns mixed with the neon greens and reds of spinach and peppers—images so spectacular, they make your mouth water. The food isn't just attractive, it's good for you, too, with recipes packed with healthy omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A and C that may reduce the incidence of dry eye, macular degeneration, and diabetes. That's exactly what authors Hellene and Minas Coroneo, M.D., have compiled with their eye health cookbook, "Feast Your Eyes." Prof. Minas Coroneo is an Australia-based ophthalmologist, internationally known for his work as an innovator and inventor. His wife Hellene has been the practice manager of Prof. Coroneo's clinic since 1991 and is a board member of the Genetic Eye Foundation, an Australian nonprofit organization assisting the visually impaired. Together, the authors have worked with 42 chefs from around the world to compile a cookbook using ingredients specifically recommended by the Genetic Eye Foundation to promote eye health. The cookbook holds a collection of recipes from mostly traditional Mediterranean diets. In short, it's a ton of seafood and olive oil. Recipes include skate wings with vegetable tabouleh, okra masala, and poached sardines with tomatoes, just to name a few. The book also includes a comprehensive, 38-page scientific section by Prof. Coroneo, explaining the correlation between eye health and diet, written for a general audience. Prof. Coroneo credits his visit to the island of Kythera, where there is a low prevalence of macular degeneration in the elderly, with sparking his interest in penning the book. The official seeds for the book were planted after Prof. Coroneo saw the effects a diet rich in omega-3 had on the health of his patients. For example, in the 1990s, Prof. Coroneo was treating a woman with severe diabetic retinopathy. "She was essentially going blind," he said. "I did all the conventional things, started laser treatment, and it wasn't working." Prof. Coroneo recommended the patient see a colleague of his who was a firm believer in the power of diet and vitamin supplements for eye health. "He put her on an omega-3 rich diet and she got better," he said. "If I hadn't seen this [myself], I would not have believed it. I was brought up to believe that if you took vitamins, all it did was enhance the vitamin supply in the sewage of Sydney." But it wasn't until Prof. Coroneo's own health was in jeopardy some years later that the book idea really took off. "I was fairly overweight and a little bit hypertensive, and I went to a cardiologist," he said. The cardiologist found high levels of lipoprotein-a in Prof. Coroneo's blood, which is an independent risk factor for stroke and heart attack. "The only thing back then that would lower lipoprotein-a levels were diet—fish oil, basically—and exercise," he said. But you can't judge a cookbook on health intentions alone. To truly review a cookbook, you've got to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. As I flipped through the pages trying to decide what recipes I'd make, I have to admit I was overwhelmed by the meticulous presentation of each and every dish. These weren't simply photos of fish on a plate; these plates had garnishes, stripes of brushed chutney, and puree in the shape of a curved teardrop. The recipe titles themselves had names of ingredients or cooking styles that sounded exotic. Artichokes en barigoule with steamed cod, black olives, and ortiz anchovies; veloute of French shallot with a brochette of rosemary roasted yabby tails; mulloway fillet with saffron fondant potato, cauliflower custard, and eggplant pickle—these were five-star restaurant menu-item descriptions, not anything you'd find in my extremely average American kitchen. I purposely chose the simplest recipes to try—lemon and marjoram-marinated mooloolaba squid with cauliflower puree, crispy skin salmon and pea salsa, and toasted cumin and beetroot salad. After marinating the squid in a marjoram, lemon, and olive oil mixture for 24 hours, I quickly sautéed it, which made it a tad chewy. The crispy skin salmon, pea salsa, and beetroot salad dishes went significantly better, although I had to substitute or leave out ingredients. The salmon and pea salsa recipe called for chervil, an herb popular in France but unheard of at my local Washington, D.C., Whole Foods supermarket. I settled on pars- ley instead. The beet salad called for toasted whole cumin seeds, another spice missing from Whole Foods. Prof. Coroneo pointed out that an important lesson from the book is that foods this delicious and healthful are worth the extra search, particularly at farmer's markets. Online resources are readily available. "Many of the things that are good for you are perishable and not immediately available, so a little effort for a special meal should not be a big deal," he said. "A little creativity with substitution is also OK." The pea salsa—a mixture of chicken broth, frozen peas, shallots, olive oil, and lemon juice—was a delight and instrumental to the fish. continued on page 194 The authors worked with chefs from around the world to compile recipes using ingredients recommended by the Genetic Eye Foundation to promote eye health. Source: Faith Hayden