Looking to the future, we’d all like to stay as active, young looking, mentally alert, and youthful as possible. We can’t stop aging, but we can stop some of the effects aging has on our bodies. This starts at a cellular level. We have over 75 trillion cells in the body that are constantly fighting off damage and repairing damage from free radicals. Free radicals are molecules that have become unstable and weakened by the loss of an electron. This can result from stress, toxins in the body, exposure to UV rays, chlorinated water, pollution, over exertion, heavy exercise, and overcooked, fried and processed foods. These free radical molecules then go around taking electrons from other molecules which creates more free radicals. As the free radicals in your body increase, aging results, along with conditions such as heart disease, chronic pain, wrinkles, loss of cognitive function and other conditions associated with getting older.
Anti-Aging Diet
Antioxidants are an important part of an anti-aging diet that can actually slow down the aging process by keeping your body cells stable and healthy. Antioxidant enzymes are able to neutralize free radicals by replacing their missing electron before they can do damage as well as help in repairing cells that have been damaged by free radicals. The best way to add lots of antioxidants to your diet is with bright colored fruits and vegetables. In general, the brighter the color, the more antioxidants it has. Take a good look at what you are eating and if you aren’t finding foods like tomatoes, blueberries, grapes, carrots, leafy greens, kiwi, sweet potatoes, bell pepper, and squashes on your plate then you may need to rethink your meals. These are the types of foods that are high in antioxidants like vitamin C that keeps skin looking young and that can reduce risks of macular degeneration associated with aging. Resveratrol is an antioxidant found in grapes and red wine and has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and premature aging.
Another tip for an anti-aging diet is to eat smaller meals more often throughout the day rather than the usual three meals a day. As we age our hormone levels change and our metabolism slows down. Eating small healthy meals spread out over the day helps in keeping metabolism stable.
Antioxidants Protect Stem Cells
Antioxidants also protect our natural adult stem cells. Stem cells have the unique ability to divide and become any other type of specialized cells. This is one of the ways the body has to repair damaged cells as when a stem cell divides it can either remain a stem cells or travel to a damaged area in the body and become a muscle cell, a red blood cell, a skin cell, or any other type of body cell. Protecting these adult stem cells by giving them the nourishment they need to thrive gives the body an extra edge in anti-aging and gives you just one more reason to make sure you get lots of antioxidants in your diet. If you want to make sure you are getting the most antioxidant power possible built into your diet you can look at the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity, or ORAC value. This is a test developed by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to give you a measurement of an antioxidant food’s ability to slow aging and neutralize free radicals. The easier way however, is to just make sure you pick a variety of various bright colored fruits and vegetables and drink green tea which is high in antioxidants. If you just can’t seem to get enough fruits and veggies in your diet for one reason or another, this stem cell support supplement can help you out as it has been shown to increase the growth of adult stem cells in in vitro laboratory studies and provides ingredients reported to nourish stem cells. Eating AFA bluegreen algae is another way to get your antioxidants as they are a rich source. You can eat bluegreen algae in a whole complete algae supplement for overall physical well-being and also get a type with the cell wall removed which is especially formulated to be able to cross the blood brain barrier easier for delivering nutrients to the brain.
No matter what age you are now, adding antioxidant foods to your diet will pay off now and in the future. Starting your anti-aging diet now will help you stay youthful in mind and body and antioxidants play a huge role in attaining that goal.
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Sources:
http://skinnyms.com/antioxidants-top-superfoods-for-workout-recovery/
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/features/anti-aging-diet