7 Ways To Fight Ageing Through Healthy Diet

Still talking about graceful and healthy ageing, do you know that healthy eating may add years to your life? My mother lived for 92 years.  I learnt a thing or two about her secrets to long and healthy life.  Her diet was Spartan. She didn’t eat meat and poultry, but ate the eggs, and loved local cottage cheese. She was selective about her carbohydrates which were more of yam, potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantain. She loved anything legume – beans, corn, green beans. She stuck to water ‘only’ for quenching thirst and rehydrating. She never touched 'soft drinks'. She ate fish and prawns, and salad. For essential oils she loved melon seed, any kind of nuts, oily fish, avocado. Most of all, her main favourite was fruits, fruits and more fruits. She fasted a lot, for spirituality, which also had its own health benefits. And what was the result of her healthy eating? She had outstanding stamina, resilience, inner strength, intelligence, and emotional wellbeing.

Whenever the headlines promote a new breakthrough in longevity, whether it's green tea, red wine or a powerful antioxidant supplement, I can’t resist reading about it. I am interested in anti-ageing research because of my passion for healthy living and its impact on general wellness. My health tips are usually to watch what you eat, supplement your nutrition when necessary, exercise and cut off or avoid stressful situations.

Happily, serious scientists have joined the search for a fountain of youth, spending millions of dollars to explore ways to increase life span. This includes researches into medicine, nutritional supplements, and calorie control. Some years back, a new anti-aging drug based on a substance called resveratrol, found in wine and grapes, was in the news. The science of anti-ageing continues to boom and anything that really works is worth knowing. However for me, I want to start easy. What I really want to know is simple: can the foods we eat and the way we live make a quantifiable difference in our life span? Aside this, is there any way to actually slow the hands of time and push the limits of longevity? And in addition to my mother's secrets to long and healthy life are also some answers around the world which may really take you by surprise.  Here we go:

1. Olive oil, fish oil, chocolate & sweet potatoes

Research suggests that olive oil has helped the Greeks beat heart disease, remember the Mediterranean diet? For Alaskan natives, diets rich in fish provide cardiovascular protection. The secret of longevity on the San Blas islands, off the coast of Panama, is surprisingly chocolate, which gladly turns out to be a rich source of compounds that help keep blood vessels healthy. 

The most astounding findings on longevity and diet come from the islands of Okinawa in southern Japan, where people are five times more likely to live to 100 than people in the United States or other European countries. Sweet potatoes  is responsible for the Okinawan’s longevity, which is a staple in the Okinawan diet, along with bitter melon, a tropical fruit often used in stir-fries and sanpin tea, a blend of green tea and jasmine flowers. Sweet potatoes, bitter melon and sanpin tea are remarkably rich in antioxidants, which may help protect against cellular wear and tear from unstable oxygen molecules generated by our body’s biochemical processes. 

2. Vegetables, fruit, whole grains and nuts

Although researchers still are not exactly sure why we age, one theory is that oxygen radicals keep eating away healthy cells, damaging and ultimately destroying them. The antioxidant theory may help explain why another group recognised for exceptional longevity, the Seventh-Day Adventists, normally live longer than their neighbours by four to seven years. Their religious habits include healthy living and a vegetarian diet majoring vegetables, fruit, whole grains and nuts, which are foods packed with antioxidants. 

3. Wine, blueberries

Wine or other alcoholic beverages have consistently been associated with lower mortality, as long as they are consumed reasonably. Blueberries have also been shown to block age-related brain impairments. 

4. Healthy eating

Those who helped themselves to lots of fruits and vegetables were less likely to develop heart disease and more likely to live longer. Each serving of fruits and vegetables was linked to a 6% reduction in risk of death from any cause. Men who limited their saturated fat also reduced their risk of heart disease. But the most impressive benefits went to men who served up fruits and vegetables and cut back on saturated fat: they slashed their risk of dying of heart disease by 76 % and of any cause by 31%.

However, health recommendations do not stop with fruits and vegetables and saturated fat, of course. Most of us know the advice by heart: 1. Get plenty of whole grains; 2. Eat fish a couple of times a week; 3. Eliminate trans fats; 4. Take a glass of wine with dinner if you like; 5. Don't  smoke. The payoff according to research is that those who followed each of these five ‘rules’ cut their risk of heart attacks and other coronary events by an astounding 82%.

Since there are so many factors existing, scientists find it difficult to put a definite figure on the number of years we will gain by eating well and staying active. But chances are that if you follow the best health advice, it is possible to add an extra 14 years to our lives

5. How to live to be 120

A lifestyle that helps avoid chronic health problems is not the only thing that determines how long you live, of course. Genes, too, help decide whether one’s life span ends up being average (which is about 78) or extraordinary at age 120. Going back to my mother, not only did her healthy diet and lifestyle help her to live more than the average years, but also her good genes were partly to be thanked for it. In general, the truth is that good health habits may be enough to carry many of us into our mid-eighties. To live longer than that, though, we need lucky genes. 

6. Eat less, live longer?

In most studies, calorie restriction appears to increase life expectancy and protect against a host of diseases. Scientists don’t know exactly why a reduction in calories may lengthen life, though the major theory is that when calorie intake falls short, cells sound an alarm, switching their priorities from reproduction to repair and maintenance, fending off genetic damage and the wear and tear caused by the effects of unstable oxygen molecules. 

In addition studies have shown that calorie restriction improved heart function and lowered inflammation levels which mean better health and longer life down the line. Also women who reduced calories by 25 % lowered their insulin levels and their core body temperature, two changes linked with longevity. They also had fewer signs of the kind of chromosomal destruction that is linked with aging and cancer. There are also minuses: for instance calorie restriction decreases testosterone in men which means lower libido, and only offers at best a 7% increase in human life expectancy.

7. The 80% solution

Let’s face it: it’s hard enough to get people to make the changes that are already proven to increase the odds of a long and healthy life, like eating more vegetables and exercising half an hour a day. Calorie-restriction diets may seem extreme. But the truth is, most of us would do well to follow the basic principle, which is to favor low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods: avoid simple sugars and flours, eat lots of leafy greens and other vegetables, choose monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fats and avoid saturated fat.  And even if we decide not to cut calories, we will be healthier and probably add years to our lives.

So, before effective longevity pills hit our chemists, there is a lot many of us can do to better our chances of living long and staying active and alert. First, get a few extra servings of vegetables, snack on nuts or fruits, indulge (a treat) in a small cup of homemade ice cream for dessert and exercise more often. And wait for this: adopt the custom of eating until you are 80% full. This practice will allow you to consume fewer calories without bothering to read nutrition labels, or be preoccupied with your choices of food. And in the end maybe more crucial to your longevity is finding delight in family and friends, having something to look forward to every day. Studies of centenarians around the world suggest that support from family and friends, than the specifics of diet, may be the most powerful secret to long life. It is simply the concept of identifying the things that are worth living for.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons.