Anti Aging Nutrition

It is a fact that as we age, symptoms appear such as dryer skin, loss of muscle tone, hair loss and wrinkles.  So will anti aging nutrition even be worth a try, since we know we get older anyway?

There are many factors that play into how we age.  For example we all know that too much sun can cause premature wrinkles while too much junk food and lack of exercise can add to weight gain and loss of muscle tissue.  

But we also know that exercise preserves muscle tone.  Eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods and desserts make it easier to maintain a healthy weight.  And we also know that genes only partially play a role in how we age as often genes lies dormant until environmental factors help decide which are activated. (1)

Add to this that we do come into contact with environmental toxins every day of our lives.  These substances can not only accelerate the aging process, but also alter DNA and have a role in cancer development.

While it seems that we may be at a loss to control how we age, there is hope.  Thanks to the many advocates of healthy living such as raw food advocates David Wolfe, Mimi Kirk and Lillian Muller (among many others) we have living proof that certain foods really are our source of anti aging nutrition.

Anti Aging Nutrition - Getting Started

There are many way to incorporate anti aging nutrition into your daily life.  For example, Free radicals flow through our bodies as we eat foods that contain them, breathe them, and even manufacture them. These can quicken the damage to our cells. They are linked to memory loss, less capacity to make new cells (regenerate), and degenerative disease such as arthritis, heart disease and cancer. The right nutrition can lessen the damage that free radicals cause.

Eliminate the junk foods that are full of free radicals and offer no nutrition that your body can utilize. This is a twofold problem as these foods add free radicals and create a nutrition deficit causing the premature breakdown of our bodies, including skin aging, hair and muscle loss, and disease.

Add fatty acids into your diet, such as those found in avocados and olive and flax seed oil. These have numerous anti aging nutrition qualities. Consuming EFA’s has been shown to ward off depression, lower risk of heart disease, stimulate the immune system, and inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

Eat plenty of organic berries as part of your daily diet. They are full of vitamins and minerals to provide healthy nutrients for supple skin. They also contain compounds that help neutralize free radicals that can age your skin prematurely.

Antioxidants are an important part of anti aging nutrition. Research has shown that diets rich in antioxidants prevent disease and premature aging. They stimulate the immune system, protect the nervous system and brain from damage associated with memory loss, and fight protein and cell damaging free-radicals.  

Foods that are high in antioxidants:

  • garlic
  • onions
  • carrots
  • red peppers
  • broccoli
  • spinach
  • pink grapefruit
  • blueberries
  • blackberry
  • raspberry
  • strawberry
  • sweet cherry
  • red and blue grapes
  • mangoes
  • parsley

Holistic nutrition is a great start to enjoying staying active and feeling great for a long time.  This means avoiding processed foods as much as possible and replacing them with the most wholesome, organic foods you can find.   A body cleanse with holistic nutrition may help clear away environmental toxins stored in fatty tissue and other areas, as it incorporates fiber to help absorb and eliminate this type of waste.

In general, the more raw fruits and vegetables you eat, the better. These by far contain the most anti-aging nutrition with no toxins to damage your youthful cells.  And if you decide to try a raw food diet, or any drastic diet change for that matter, be sure to incorporate change slowly to allow your body time to adjust and avoid side effects of cleansing.

Resources

(1)  Lifestyle Choices Could Affect Gene Sequences