Many of what are considered signs of ageing-wrinkled skin, a fading memory, diminished physical capacity and an increased susceptibility to infection-are actually little more than deficiencies of chemicals called antioxidants.
You don’t have to sit by and watch your body disintegrate.
Instead, you can eat the following 10 foods to help hang on to and replenish your biomechanical vitality.
Just about any fruit or vegetable will make contributions to your quest for youth; here are ten important ones, you shouldn’t ignore.
1. Avocado: True, avocado is high in fat, much of it is “good” fat, the mono-unsaturated type, which resists oxidation. Avocado is high in glutathione, an antioxidant which helps neutralize fat in other foods. Research also suggests that eating avocado lowers and improves cholesterol better than a low-fat diet does.
2. Berries: Blueberries have more antioxidants called anthocyanins than any other food-in fact, 3 times more than the second-richest sources, red wine and green tea. Both blueberries and cranberries help ward off urinary tract infections. And a study showed that older people who ate strawberries had the lowest rates of all kinds of cancer.
3. Broccoli: The green stuff provides an awesome array of antioxidants. Scientists at John Hopkins Institute discovered a particularly strong one called sulforaphane. Served to animals, the broccoli chemical stoked the activity of detoxification enzymes that slashed cancer rates by two-thirds. Broccoli is packed with vitamin C, beta-carotene, indole, glutathione and lutein, and is also a rich source of the trace metal chromium, which is a life extender and protects against the ravages of out-of-control insulin and blood sugar.
4. Cabbage: People who ate cabbage once a week compared with once a month had only 66 percent of the risk of colon cancer, one study found. Cabbage also seems to deter stomach cancer. Savoy cabbage (the crinkly type) is the strongest one; you can eat it raw or lightly cooked, for the best effect.
5. Carrots: Carrots are legendary in fighting off ageing diseases. In a recent study, men eating a couple of carrots a day lowered blood cholesterol by 10 percent. Many studies pinpoint beta-carotene, carrots’ main antioxidant asset, as a powerhouse against ageing and disease. People with low levels of beta-carotene
in their blood are more apt to have heart attacks, strokes and various cancers.
6. Citrus fruit: The National Cancer Institute has called the orange the “complete package of every class of natural anticancer inhibitor known, including carotenoids, terpenes, flavenoids and vitamin C.” Grapefruit, too, has a unique type of fibre that reduces cholesterol dramatically and may reverse the ageing disease atherosclerosis.
7. Grapes: Grapes contain 20 known antioxidants that work together to fend off oxygen free-radical attacks that promote disease and ageing, according to researchers at the University of California. The antioxidants are in the skin and the seeds, and the more colourful the skin, the greater the antioxidant punch.
8. Onions: They might give you bad breath, but they help prevent cancer, thin your blood (discouraging clots) and raise the good type (HDL) of cholesterol. Red and yellow onions (sorry, not the white ones) are the richest of all foods in quercetin, a celebrated antioxidant that inactivates cancer-causing agents, inhibits enzymes that spur cancer growth and has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-fungal and antiviral activity.
9. Spinach: Heavy in lutein, an anti-ageing agent which rivals beta-carotene for effectiveness, spinach also has beta-carotene plus a good dose of folic acid, a brain and artery protector.
10. Tomatoes: These are the richest source of lycopene, which new research suggests helps to preserve mental and physical functioning among the elderly. High levels of lycopene also reduce your risk of pancreatic cancer.