Dr. Heber – Eye Health – Lutein and Eye Health Now humans have to protect themselves from oxidation in many, many ways. One of the ways that’s very important for us to know in terms of pistachios is the eyes. Now in the back of the eye you have a layer of film called the retina that actually collects light, sends the signals to your brain, and your brain interprets the light as images. Now over time ultraviolet light can damage the back of the eye just as it can if you leave a shirt out in the back yard for three weeks. What happens to the color? It gets bleached, right? Same thing happens in the eye. Well there’s a part of the eye where you collect the most light. It’s called the macula. And that part of the eye is where most of the light is focused. Well, the human body is brilliant because if you take a retina out and you analyze it, you’ll find out that lutein, the green color in the pistachio, is actually concentrated in that part of the eye that collects the most light. Isn’t nature amazing to take that defensive thing and put it right where it’s needed?