If you don’t like leafy greens in your plate, time has come to change your habit. A new study has suggested that eating vegetables, especially leafy greens, can help in offsetting risk of developing open-angle glaucoma, also known as POAG.

The study published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology was conducted by a team of researchers led by Jae Hee Kang of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. For the analysis, the researchers collected data from Nurses’ Health Study, conducted in 1984, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study in 1986 and 2012.

After analyzing data of about 105,000 volunteers, the researchers found that most of the participants were healthy and didn’t have signs of POAG, which is a progressive condition that generally occurs in individuals over 50 years of age. The eye disease is also known with its nickname ‘the silent thief of sight’. Approximately 1% population of the America is affected the insidious disorder, which is a very common type of glaucoma.

The researchers conducted the study with an aim to find if there is any association between glaucoma and diet. To make the study more effective, they focused their analysis on the amounts of nitrate included in a participant’s daily diet. They found, “Those who had consumed around a cup and a half of green leafy vegetables per day, maximizing their intake of nitrate, dimished their likelihood of suffering from primary open-angle glaucoma by a around 20 to 30%”.

According to the study authors, they have found an association between the disease and diet, but an actual causation is still to be confirmed. They believe the study has provided significant clues that can help an individual to avoid risk associated with glaucoma.