Can We Reverse Aging With Nutrition?
So many clients ask about ways to slow down aging. There’s lots of Baby Boomers/GenX out there that are concerned with that. Even some millennials are concerned, they want to age gracefully as well. I want to talk about aging, slowing the process of aging, lowering your biological age with nutrition. What can we do? Well, honestly, the biggest thing is our food choices.
Fried Foods
If we stick to whole foods, you’re going to be pretty well off. If you have health issues and whole foods are not improving them, get with someone like me, a practitioner that can help you dig through those issues. As far as what not to eat, let me remind you. You’ve probably heard this before but we forget… fried food. A plate of French fries is equal to smoking at least three to four to five cigarettes. Yep, that’s right. Maybe more. I’ve seen some research that shows it could be equal to a pack of cigarettes. That’s one meal of French fries. Staying away from fried food can help you out so much. It’s just crazy. And keep in mind, some people say well, “I slice my own potatoes and I fry it in this great peanut oil.” Okay, I get it that’s going to be better than fast food fries for sure. But remember when you go at high temperature, you create massive amounts of toxic chemicals that were not present in the food before. I’m not gonna get technical and bore you with the names but all kinds of nasty things are created whenever you fry anything, especially at higher temperatures. You’re not gonna see that on a label of any fast food or any kind of fried food, but those chemicals are in there. They just aren’t required to disclose that. You’ve got to stay away from fried food or minimize as much as you can. Use it on an occasional treat.
Sugar
Now the big one which I’ve talked about in other posts, sugar. Sugar creates a lot of issues in your body. It creates a tremendous amount of inflammation and inflammation is the number one cause of chronic illness of all time, besides mental health issues. Minimizing sugar is so important.
Fiber
Another big one is going to be fiber. There’s so much talk right now about going carnivore and eating steak three times a day and if that works for you, more power to you. But I can tell you, if you’re going to lack fiber in your diet, you’re going to raise your risk of cardiovascular issues, raise your risk of cancers. Fiber slows down your meals and makes sure whatever you’re consuming gets to your belly slower and raises your blood glucose and insulin at a much slower rate. So fiber is just massive. If you can’t get enough fiber, (which honestly, I eat six to eight servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I’m just stuffing myself. I still cannot get enough fiber)take psyllium husk. I take psyllium husk almost every day because I feel better, my bowel moves better. I get waste out of my body on a regular basis. It’s awesome.
Fasting
So another thing we can do in food and with nutrition to help us age more gracefully is think about fasting. Just give it some thought. There’s a lot of research on it and I will probably do a post on fasting by itself but fasting is pretty amazing. There’s a lot of literature on it, showing it has so many benefits. You don’t have to go crazy and do a three to five day fast or anything like that. You can just skip breakfast for example and just get some good water in with some minerals, and lemon. You can drink coffee if you want, for example, bulletproof coffee. We actually do bulletproof coffee a lot here. We will blend a little grass fed butter in that coffee, that makes it taste great. Then we stay away from food until around noon. I’ve been finding, and I’m actually someone who has a genetic issue with insulin, that I feel even better skipping breakfast, believe it or not, and I know I grew up being slammed in my head by teachers, by my parents, by everybody saying ”You’ve gotta eat breakfast”.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily true anymore. We have got to experiment, find out what works for us. But I can tell you, just skipping breakfast can start to help you slow down some of those markers associated with aging. Hope you fins this helpful! Let me know how I can support you!
Dr. Jason
Naturopathic doctor in Lansing, MI
