Anti Aging Nutrition

Anti Aging Nutrition – What is it?

This is the first part on anti aging nutrition. I have no idea how many parts there will be, I only know that I will cover as much as possible about anti aging nutrition and its effect on anti aging health. Please feel free to post your comments below.

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I use to work on the eighth floor of a twenty five story building. Each floor seemed to have their ‘specialization’.

A few floors would be dedicated to offices like the one I was working at, and other floors would cater to lawyers, accountants and doctors.

I found out later on that in fact one whole floor was dedicated to geriatrics. The number of elderly people who used to come into the lifts in wheelchairs, or hooked up to oxygen tanks or some tube or another was quite a sight.

It used to well, scare me a bit. It was such a horrifying portrait of old age : the inertia, the decaying smell, the blank stares into the impending finality of life; and as an impressionable twenty something then, I vowed I would rather die young than be reduced to a state like that.

Well, years have passed now and the clock is ticking. Let’s be honest, our time will come no matter what we do. But what I have realized meanwhile is that I want to live long, as long as I possibly can – but I also want to live in a state where I can enjoy my ‘old age’ and not be incapacitated with all sorts of diseases and illnesses. Diseases and illnesses I can avoid by being a little smart about my lifestyle.

Anti aging nutrition I decided, was the place to start.

The Chinese view food as medicine and medicine as food, with a healthy sprinkling of herbs to treat all sorts of ailments. Nutritious eating for them is synonymous with disease prevention and good health, with the understanding that in this balancing act, prevention is always better than cure.

They are so right – and the trick is not to eat more, but to eat smart.

A lot of people consume many calories a day, yet still lack the essential anti aging nutrients to keep them healthy and fit. It is not uncommon to see individuals consume 3-4,000 calories a day and still suffer ‘malnutrition’.

How important is anti aging nutrition? There certainly is increasing evidence that a healthy diet, exercise and  proper nutrition will determine quite dramatically how we age.

“Provided you are not in the grip of degenerative disease already, you are likely to get at least a decade of vigorous years, and perhaps a lot more, no matter what age you are now [through optimal nutrition]“.

– Dr. Michael Colgan, Colgan Institute -

There is also evidence that consuming less calories, about 10-25% less, will extend your lifespan. Eating less but eating right – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and not processed foods, unsaturated fats and empty calories such as crisps and sugary pastries. In Okinawa Japan, where there are more centenarians than anywhere else in the world, the Okinawans eat 17-40% less calories than other Japanese. Their diets also contains plenty of fish, soya products such as tofu and dark green vegetables including seaweed.

When you think that one in three Americans will get some form of cancer in their lifetime (with the number closing in on one in two), and that approximately 60% of people over age 65 gets high blood pressure; or that there is a 45% chance of being on some form of medication when you become a senior citizen – looking at what you eat and how you nourish your body is vital.

As we age, our bodies’ ability to absorb and assimilate nutrients becomes less efficient.  Our cells’ re-generation process slows down, or stops altogether.

Free radicals are produced every time our bodies convert glucose into energy. Our immune system deals with most of these oxidants but about 1% of our cells’ DNA are left damaged where our immune system has missed or cannot reach. Over time, the damage accumulates. On top of that, our bodies’ ability to repair the damage diminishes with age, which means that without proper care and attention, we age faster.

Next post we will look at one of four tips to prolong life and improve aging  health : 

Preventing free radical damage.

Related articles for anti aging nutrition :

• How To Slow Down the Aging Process (howcast.com)
• Dr. John Salerno: Why I Recommend Organic Foods To My Weight Loss Patients (huffingtonpost.com)

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