Anti-Aging Food Tips: What to Eat to Stay Young
These anti-aging food tips decrease bad cholesterol, reduce stored fat, and fight disease. Plus, these foods actually fight physiological aging - which means you’ll look and feel young.
“A man ninety years old was asked to what he attributed his longevity. “I reckon,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “It’s because most nights I went to bed and slept when I should have sat up and worried.” ” - Dorothea Kent.
So we know one anti-aging secret is getting enough sleep and not worrying about things you can’t control. But there’s more! Here’s several anti-aging food tips from Dr Vincent Giampapa’s book The Gene Makeover: The 21st Century Anti-Aging Breakthrough. (Click the book cover for more information).
Anti-Aging Food Tips: What to Eat to Stay Young
First, focus on anti-aging eating, not a diet. Maintaining a healthy waist-to-hip ratio is more important than have a thin physique. Dr Giampapa says that anti-aging eating is a lifestyle choice that changes your body composition so you have more lean muscle than fat. What do you eat to stay young? A healthy ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.
Benefits of anti-aging eating:
- Reduced pain and inflammation.
- Increased antioxidant levels.
- Stabilized, balanced hormone levels.
- Improved quality of life.
- Decrease age-related diseases.
7 Ways to Incorporate Anti-Aging Eating Into Your Life
1. Eat fat, but don’t go overboard. “Excess fat is the culprit for accelerated aging because fat cells cause hormonal imbalances that are bad for your health,” writes Dr Giampapa in The Gene Makeover. “The hormones produced by fat cells cause inflammation, excessive clogging of arteries, deterioration of the heart and vascular system, and accelerated aging.”
2. Balance your nutrients. An important anti-aging food tip includes balancing your diet into 40% carbohydrates, 35% protein, and 25% fat. If you’ve ever wondered what to eat to stay young, the answer may be common sense: a balanced diet.
3. Remember that carbohydrates are whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, herbs, and spices. They have a low glycemic index, which means they won’t cause your blood sugar to spike. Avoiding refined sugars and processed foods is a big anti-aging food tip (which you’ve no doubt heard before).
4. Savor those phytonutrients, because they have disease-fighting power. Eat yellow/orange/red fruits and veggies for the cartenoids, green produce for the sulfur compounds, purple/blue/black/magenta fruits and veggies for the phenolics and flavonoids, tan veggies for the phytosterols, and white foods for the protein and omega-3 fatty acids.
5. Increase protein intake as you age to maintain muscle mass, reduce insulin resistance, and repair DNA. Dr Giampapa says that vegetables and legumes are excellent sources of protein - this is a great anti-aging food tip (for me, anyway, because I didn’t realize veggies had protein! Well, maybe I knew that there’s protein in edamame).
6. Don’t be scared of fat - only huge amounts are harmful. I’m slowly getting over my fat phobia, so this anti-aging food tip is good for me to remember. “Essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 promote cellular membrane function, production of eicosonoids, blood pressure control, and better function of our blood platelets,” writes Dr Giampapa in The Gene Makeover.
7. One last anti-aging food tip from Dr Vincent Giampapa: “Drink plenty of liquids between meals instead of with them.” I’ve heard that drinking water while eating hampers the digestive process. Dr G. doesn’t actually explain this anti-aging secret in his book, that I’m aware of.
So - the best anti-aging food tips revolve around a healthy, balanced diet! You probably knew all along what to eat to stay young…but another reminder can’t hurt, can it?
If you found Anti-Aging Food Tips: What to Eat to Stay Young helpful, try:
- 10 Things You Never Knew About Beauty
- Fitness Myths & Facts From a Professional Fitness Trainer
- 10 Tips on Healthy Foods, Fitness, & Maintaining Weight Loss
