Anti-Aging Foods

Your  #1 anti-aging tool?  Diet!

It goes without saying that what you put in your mouth shows up on your skin.   High sugar and high starch foods are "pro-inflammatory."  They cause a spike in blood sugar and can accelerate the aging process - not only in our skin - but in all the organs of our body,  leading to nasty age-related diseases  like diabetes, heart disease and loss of muscle mass to name only a few.

Pro-inflammatory foods include processed foods, dairy, bread, cookies, corn syrup, cake, pasta, etc. OK, that pretty much includes everything you WANT to eat when you are feeling lousy... then, let's face it:  eating those foods makes you want to eat MORE and you end up feeling worse than you started.  Then hey, you crave those sugary foods again.  Warning:  Dangerous Endless Cycle.

There are many things that contribute to aging (like hormonal changes, stress, environment, etc.).  But, the good news is that one of the easiest things to control is what we eat!   Ah yes, easier said than done sometimes - but it does makes sense to reduce or avoid foods that increase inflammation and go with the ones that are high in anti-oxidants.  (If you are just starting out, switching to whole grain breads and pasta can help.)

According to the free-radical theory of aging, foods high in anti-oxidants will help slow the oxidative processes in your body, and slow free radical damage in your cells that can contribute to age-related degeneration and disease.

Well, now, with the info below, choosing anti-oxidant rich foods is EASY....and guess what?  Blueberries are great, but they are NOT #1.

Enter the "rating system" for antioxidant-rich foods... 

It's called ORAC - NOT to be confused with the vacuum cleaner brand it sounds like  -----  ORAC is a unit of measurement short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.   ORAC was developed by the National Institute on Aging in the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

You want to shoot for 3,000 ORAC units per day - ORAC units are based on per 100 grams (about 3½ ounces).

So, knowing that the goal is 3,000 a day, why not choose a few foods that you like from the ORAC list and help to start fighting aging and disease now ?  You might see some foods on here you'd never expect to see - like cloves.  And you'll see, it's EASY to get to 3,000 with all of the crazy-anti-oxidant-rich super-foods out there.

Anti-oxidant rich "Superfoods" include:

Ground cloves                    314,446 ORAC
Acai berry, freeze-dried     102,700 ORAC
Goji berries                          25,300 ORAC
Raw cranberries                     9,584 ORAC
Red table wine                       3,873 ORAC
Almonds                                4,454 ORAC

The above is just a sampling from the list.  Here's a link to the list of ALL foods:

Click here to view all foods and their ORAC ratings
Just adding a few of these high ORAC rated foods into your diet will DEFINITELY help with your overall health and anti-aging.  Check it out!

Here's to your health and to anti-aging! And that milk chocolate is 7,528 ORAC per 3 1/2 ounces !