Eat your carrots. They might just help save your eyesight.

In the United States, the leading cause of blindness over the age of 65 is macular degeneration, a gradual deterioration of the central part of the retina, the macula. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the condition, but a ray of hope has emerged from a large, university-based study.

The Eye Disease Case-Control Study Group, the Associated Press reported this week, compared 356 patients who had advanced age-related macular degeneration with 520 people of the same age and sex distribution who did not. Asking questions about dietary intakes of various food components, they consequently found no link between the condition and intake of vitamins A or E. Vitamin C was found to have only a slight beneficial effect.

The most notable association was with the intake of compounds called carotenoids, which are most abundant in yellow vegetables such as carrots and squash. Persons in the highest group for intake of two carotenoids, lutein and zaexanthin, had a 43-percent lower risk of age-related macular degeneration than those in the lowest 20 percent of carotenoid intake.

The theory to support this finding starts with the knowledge that the carotenoids form the yellow pigment of the macula. It's believed that the carotenoids prevent sun-caused damage to the retina by absorbing harmful rays.

There's no definitive proof of that theory, but the numbers indicate that these vegetables could be as helpful for older people as they are for children.

*** Your hearing, meanwhile, could be telling you something about your heart.

According to the AP news agency, hearing loss has been closely associated with the incidence of heart attacks in 1,662 elderly people in the so-called Framingham Heart Study, which has looked at the health and illness of residents of a small Massachusetts town for several decades.

In fact, hearing loss was a more significant indicator of heart attack in this population than such conventional and food-related risk factors as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and high blood cholesterol.

There doesn't seem to be a cause-and-effect relationship between heart attack and hearing loss, the study indicates. Instead, the same disease processes that lead to a heart attack appear to harm hearing ability as well.

*** Travellers who are heading to Ontario as of today can now get the bare facts on beer.

Earlier this week, a Canadian brewery unveiled its latest entry into the c rowded market for beer with the launch of its "Truly Naked'' brand.

Billed as "the beer with nothing to hide,'' the brew is made using a water treatment process that the Lakeport Brewing Corp. says took five months to develop and reduces ion levels as well as hardness and alkalinity. "There are going to be a lot of people surprised at the name Truly Naked,'' said brewmaster William Sharpe, "and our copy writers certainly had no lack of material to work with in writing the ads.'' "But,'' the Hamilton, Ontario-based brewmaster added, "our tagline sums it up nicely: it's pure, clean, natural beer.'' Lakeport, whose majority owner is private label soft drink-maker Cott Corp., currently makes 16 brands of beer for the Ontario and Quebec markets, including Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Truly Naked, however, will only be sold in Ontario.