How to Eat Your Way into Youthfulness
A hundred years ago, most people didn’t live past the age of 60. But today, the average American’s life expectancy is 78 years, and more people than ever are living to see their 100th birthday. With a long life ahead of you, now’s the time to establish healthy routines that will keep your body feeling and looking young well into your golden years. Fitness and exercise, avoiding smoking or drinking to excess, and getting a good night’s sleep are all part of preserving your bod, but it’s also important to make mindful dietary choices. But don’t worry, you don’t need to live out your life counting calories and subsisting on nothing but healthy foods like grapefruit.
Here are a few dietary tips to boost your longevity while still enjoying life’s greatest pleasure – wonderful food!
Reduce Wrinkles the Mediterranean Way
It’s become well-known that the Greeks and Italians, besides having delicious cuisine and beautiful people, embrace a diet that has led to a population of centenarians. Their diet, which mainly consists of vegetables, healthy fats, low amounts of dairy, and fish as the primary meat, is naturally good for lowering the bad kind of cholesterol that can lead to cardiovascular problems. But as it happens, common Mediterranean foods like fish and olive oil also naturally brighten and smooth skin, which is a crucial part of keeping you looking younger than you are. Please pass the olives!
Feed Your Hair
Lustrous hair is a sign of vitality, and you can keep your hair looking youthful by feeding it a protein-rich diet of lean meat, beans, and Greek yogurt. It’s best to avoid sugar, which has been attributed to hair loss, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the most decadent treats. In fact, antioxidant-rich foods like berries, dark chocolate and, yes, red wine (in moderation) are also great boosters for healthy, strong hair.
Don’t Be Bad to the Bone
You can live a wild life, but if you want to be able to stand up straight and look and feel your best well into old age, it’s essential to maintain good bone health. Avoid osteoporosis by growing healthy bones with a calcium-rich diet and lots of Vitamin D which works in collaboration to help your body absorb calcium and grow your bone density. But beware of certain foods can inhibit calcium absorption and reduce bone mineral density such as salty foods, sugary foods, and caffeine which leaches calcium from bones. The key here is moderation and balance.
Don’t Over-eat
Watching your weight has myriad health benefits from feeling great to looking great, but counting calories can be a real drag. The key to not overeating seems to be something the world’s longest-living people have figured out. For example, “Hara hachi bu” is the Japanese practice of stopping yourself when you feel 80% full, and Okinawa, Japan is one of the five places in the world with a pocket of particularly long-living people. And in many of the other places where people have a high life expectancy, it’s common for the biggest meal of the day to happen early while the smallest meal is in the early evening with no more snacking before bedtime.
There’s many things you can do to stay healthy well into old age, but a mindful diet is among the most important as it contributes to so many aspects of your physical healthy, your mental health, and your outer beauty as well. So take a tip from the centenarians around the world and enjoy the finer things like broiled salmon with olives, rich dark chocolate, and Sardinian wine, but do so while embracing balance and moderation and you will stay radiant and youthful for many years to come.
