What you eat will result in both your physical and mental functions. You may have gained or lost a few pounds for no obvious reason and you may have had those days where you can’t seem to remember a thing. For all these reasons your diets have something to do with it. Your age can be also affected by your diet. Your diet plays a major role in whether you age gracefully or whether you show signs of early aging. Definitely, we cannot prevent time from moving forward, but, we can be proactive in reducing the physical and mental effects of aging. There is some food that can actually help you age slower.
You don’t need to fully understand the digestive and metabolic functions; you only want to understand the basics. Every food and drink you take to end up in your small intestine and it breaks down everything that you eat and drink into its basic elements, including vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Your gut delivers the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from healthy foods into your body’s cells, which provide nourishment. But, your cells for the lack of a better term, feel like crap if you eat junk.
The food you take also affects the rate which your metabolism either hums or sputters along. Take protein-rich foods as an example, it gives your metabolism a boost, while complex and refined carbs significantly slow your metabolism as they are very difficult to break down. You will develop a myriad of health conditions, all of which are linked, directly or indirectly, to an impaired inflammatory response if your metabolic rate is slow. But if you take health food you can help to keep your metabolism going. On the other hand, junk food slows your metabolism, increasing inflammation, and promoting aging.
By slowing down inflammation and improve your metabolic health you can age slower. There are some people who show signs of aging too early in life, but they often don’t bother with keeping inflammation in check.
The Role Of Food In Aging
“Poor-quality foods, like trans fats, cause inflammation – and aging is basically a chronic inflammatory state. Can you look older because you’re eating like crap? Absolutely.” – Timothy Harlan, MD, assistant professor at Tulane University School of Medicine.
First we’ll add another tool to your anti-aging toolkit by going over the foods to avoid at all costs. “Prevention is the best medicine.”
Stay away from the following:
- Deep-fried stuff: anything that is deep-fried is bad as they include the pre-packaged stuff, like potato chips and French fries.
- Doughnuts and pastries: laced with fat, pastries contain a boatload of sugar. Excess sugar intake is tied to the early development of wrinkles.
- Fatty meats: also high in “sat fats,” fatty meats offer little in the way of nutritional value.
- Processed meats: most processed meat is high in saturated fat and nitrates; both accelerate inflammation and therefore aging.
- Too much booze: up to two drinks per day may be beneficial, but anything beyond an occasional couple of beers or glasses of wine causes early aging.
- Here Are Five Foods That Make You Age Slower!
“Ninety percent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat.” – Victor Lindlahr
- Beans and Lentils
Beans and lentils consist with fiber and protein which help to stabilize your blood sugar levels. Fiber helps us feel fuller for longer and protein helps build muscle and burn fat and also provide a steady dose of energy. Beans are low on the glycemic (read: sugar) scale. It says that they provide the above benefits without causing inflammation or slowing the metabolism. Anyway, they help to slow the aging process.
Black, kidney, navy, and pinto beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and dried peas are all great choices.
- Carrots
Due to a large helping of beta-carotene, carrots are one of the best health foods available. Beta-carotene is a powerful antioxidant which helps in safeguarding our cells and DNA from free radicals such as environmental pollutants. Early aging will cause due to these free radicals, and beta-carotene works as a preventative measure in this regard. Carrots also have anti-cancer properties as it contains nutrient falcarinol.
Try eating them raw and whole to get the most nutritional value from them. When you chop and cook the vegetable, some of the nutrients will “leak” out.
- Soy Products
They are derived from soybeans such as tofu and edamame which help to prevent cellular aging. Edamame is a class of phytochemicals that have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties which have a rich supply of isoflavones. Tofu has a healthy dose of protein and essential amino acids. Tofu is also mineral-dense, containing calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, and zinc.
Take a lot of soy products, if you want to prevent early aging.
- Salmon
Most of the diseases affecting the brain and heart tend to target older adults. But, you can avoid it by substituting some of that red meat for freshwater fish such as salmon, which provides healthy fatty acids. According to researchers, the omega-3 fatty acid can ward off age-related cognitive decline. The freshwater fish can help prevent the development of heart disease as they are loaded with potassium.
Salmon is one of the few foods that contain a good dose of selenium, a mineral that promotes thyroid health, regulates hormonal activity, and keeps the metabolism revved up.
- Citrus Fruits
Some of the best foods to slow aging down are lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, mandarins, and tangerines. Here are the ways citrus helps:
- Contains a boatload of vitamin C, which has antioxidant properties, fights infections, and limits inflammation.
- Contains anti-aging flavonoids and carotenoids.
- Wards off age-related cognitive decline, heart disease, and various types of cancer.
Final Thoughts
With the use of health foods, such as those mentioned above, you can limit the physical and mental effects of aging. Diet is an absolutely critical factor, but here are five of some of the most potent foods to help you age slower.
Stay healthy, eat right, age slower, and age beautifully.