Eighteen months ago Dr Paul Beaumont issued his first warning of the link between macular degeneration and vegetable oils. Over 800,000 Australians are affected by the condition and Dr Beaumont still believes vegetable oil is a major factor.

Dr Paul Beaumont believes the vegetable oils found in margarine and other foods are a big factor in the rise of macular degeneration.

He said: "The vegetable oils are the seed oil such as sunflower, safflower and canola. The foods they're in include margarine, breads, biscuits, pastries, salad dressings and dips. If you eat a lot of them you're eating a lot of vegetable oil and your chances of getting macular degeneration, according to the study, are more than doubled."

Dr Beaumont's view is controversial. He has been harshly criticised by scientists who believe there is not enough evidence to prove the link between macular degeneration and vegetable oils.

Dr Beaumont said: "I don't think they're looking at the ethical side of this, they're looking at the scientific side. The ethics are if this is likely then patients have a right to know, we should not hide information from the public, that sort of paternalistic attitude should have gone out of science and medicine."

Cathy Nolan wishes she'd been told of the link earlier. At 42 Cathy suddenly developed macular degeneration in her right eye.

"I started to get some blurriness in my right eye, after a day or two I noticed a grey shadowing around the eye, then in a couple of days that shadowing got worse and it actually started to deteriorate so there was a lot of darkness and a lot of shadowing," said Ms Nolan.

Ms Nolan received the latest photo dynamic therapy treatment. It works by injecting a chemical that accumulates in the burst blood vessel, a light is shone on the eye which activates the chemical to shut down the abnormal vessel and stop the bleed.

This treatment slows the disease down and can improve one in 10 patients' sight. Lucky for Ms Nolan she was in that 10 per cent and an operation to remove the clot of blood finished the procedure.

Today Ms Nolan only cooks with olive oil, uses butter and she sticks to a strict diet of fish, nuts and vegetables, in particular spinach.

Dr Peter Clifton, CSIRO research director, believes the studies Dr Beaumont refers to link all fats with macular degeneration not just vegetable oils.

He said: "I have no problem with Dr Beaumont going out and telling his patients his personal beliefs, but I do object to him worrying the whole of Australia on the issue of polyunsaturated fat when the evidence is very flimsy.

"I think it's unnecessarily causing anxiety, the net effect is people will think 'well polyunsaturated fat is bad I'll eat butter,' butter is probably no better for their eye it will certainly be worse for their heart," Dr Clifton added.

While the ethical debate continues the common goal is to find better treatments for the condition.

Dr Robyn Gymer reports one drug, Lucentis, is standing out in the preliminary 12 month results.

Dr Gymer said: "[The Lucentis trail] showed that about 95 per cent of people in the sub group that were in the study managed to maintain their vision, in the study at least a quarter of the people, if not more were able to improve their vision a little bit, this is not found in the other trials to date."

But Dr Gymer warns patients that these drugs are still in clinical trails, most of which won't be completed for at least another year.

Dr Beaumont's advice to everyone, particularly those with a family history of macular degeneration, is to steer clear of vegetable oils particularly margarine although the National Heart Foundation may not completely agree with this advice.

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