Aging – a tough subject – right? Believe me, when I hit 40 – I couldn’t believe it!   Inevitably – we all go through Chronological aging, but the good news is that we ALL have control over our Physiological aging. 

 

There have been some really interesting studies that link our aging process directly to how much inflammation is occurring in our body.  There are many lifestyle choices that produce chronic inflammation and therefore accelerated aging that we can improve upon to slow down our aging process. 

 

Have you ever heard of the word Telomeres? – Here’s a quick explanation of exactly what they are. 

 

Deep within your DNA, are the building blocks of every cell in your body. At the end of each strand of DNA is a small amount of genetic material called the telomere (tee-lo-mere). The telomere controls aging and every time your cells divide, your telomeres get shorter.

As your telomeres get shorter, your body produces cells that are older and weaker.  So the shorter your telomeres, the “older” your body looks and feels.  But when you slow this shortening, you may be able to extend your lifespan, and feel and look younger longer.  

 

Isn’t that amazing news?  I love that!

 

We can all slow the aging process by simple nutrition and lifestyle changes that can slow down the shortening of and in some studies even lengthen the telomere.

 

Rather than give you information overload I’m going to share one strategy each week over the next few weeks.  This will allow you to make one change per week – a much more realistic goal!

 

Here is your first strategy for slowing down telomere shortening and therefore aging.  

 

Add these nutritious and thankfully delicious foods to your diet for great anti-aging benefits.

A. Green Tea

B. Grass Fed beef

C. Red Wine (in moderation)

D. Foods high in Vitamin E –

Nuts • Nut oils • Seeds • Apples • Beef • Seafood • Avocados • Spinach

E. Dark Chocolate – 70 to 75% or higher Cacao content is best as that will assure lower sugar and higher anti-oxidant potency.

 

In summary, a diet high in anti-oxidants and healthy fats produces the perfect environment for anti-aging.  

 

Also a Nutrition plan lower in added Sugar will help prevent accelerated aging as well.  Sugar causes glycation and free radical damage to your cells and therefore inflammation, leading to accelerated aging.  Therefore the less sugar you eat – the less chronic inflammation and skin damage – so the younger you can look and feel.  It’s Ok to splurge once in awhile, however if you have large amounts of sugar everyday – you will look older much faster. You can check out my Sweet Sunday posts on Instagram for recipes of my healthy but sweet indulgences.

 

I’ve been using Shea Moisture Body Oil for some time now, but just started using their hand cream. Ummm….I love it!  My hands are so soft, I can’t get enough of it.   I’m currently using the Raw Shea Butter hand cream, but they have three other kinds I still need to try. All of their products are paraben free, with no synthetic colors or mineral oil.

Better yet?  You can buy their products at most drug stores.  🙂