Supernutrition to lower your biological age doesn’t come from a single faddish ‘superfood’, but from a diet packed with the multiple beneficial nutrients that reduce inflamm-aging, promote immunity and reduce dementia and cancer risk.
YES! you can influence these outcomes by your food choices: in fact, it is absolutely the best way [alongside daily exercise]. The key dietary components to achieve this are adequate protein intake, lots of polyphenols and flavonoids, an appropriate choice of oils and fats and attention to trace element and vitamin content. Polyphenols and flavonoids are the chemicals in food that do the anticancer/ anti-inflammatory work.
1. Fill up your plate with good stuff first, then there is no room for the not-so-good stuff.
Good means a rainbow plate of many colours, because this enables you to get many different active chemicals. If your diet is restricted and say your ‘regular’ green vegetable is just broccoli or peas, then you don’t get the full spectrum you need.
Flavonoids come from berries and are in the skin of apples and pears. Unless you are eating organic apples and pears there is a lot of pesticide in the skin. You can wash in water and bicarbonate for 20 minutes to remove a lot of the pesticides. Unfortunately, the same is true for strawberries, grapes and blueberries.Peeled tropical fruits are possibly your best bet.
In terms of vegetables, your ultimate target is a variety of 30 a week as recommended by Spector*. This sounds impossible, but here is how you do it.
First just up your rainbow coefficient by putting say broccoli and peas on your plate along with some tomatoes and a tablespoon of a fresh herb like parsley or basil. Sprinkle on some chopped spring onions and that is 5 in one meal. Any salad can include 5 ingredients too. Do that with a wide variety and it is easily achievable. Use inexpensive packets of stir fry vegetables from the fresh aisle and vegetable combinations from the freezer cabinet to help this along. [frozen is just as nutritious as fresh].
These combos can be quickly cooked by steaming them or microwaving. Some are sold as mixes for roasting. So there is no extra work involved and the variety is there. Then add in small quantities of flavouring vegetables to each plate – spring onions, fresh or frozen herbs, celery chopped finely, capers from a jar, a spoonful of sauerkraut or kimchi.
Use different combinations each day and just ‘layer’ the veg to occupy 50-70% of every plate you eat. If you can make the plate look pretty as well, that will enhance your mealtime. The final trick is to walk down the vegetable aisle looking for things you have never tried. That pak choi that is on offer, the swede, the many different types of cabbage, the celeriac. It can be fun to try new things.
2. The Protein Punch
This is the essential building block for repair and regeneration of tissue. EVERYONE over 60 needs more protein than they did at 40 because of reduced absorption and poor utilisation issues. The requirement was calculated in a recent expert review to be 1.2g of protein per Kg body weight. So this approximates to 100g per day for an 80 Kg individual. That is 3 chicken breasts or tins of tuna or modest-sized steaks or other equivalent sources. A whey protein powder can easily offer 30G in a glass when made up with water or milk. [Pea protein for vegans]. So, using a supplement every day is a wise option.
3. Vitamins?
Some vitamin needs will not be fulfilled in the diet, notably vitamin D3 which is not usually obtained from the diet and vitamin B12, which is poorly absorbed in older individuals. Approximately 30% of over 60 year olds will be deficient in D3 or B12, and in the trace elements, magnesium and zinc. So these must be replenished by supplements.
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