Nutrition – Eat your way to better ageing
Eating incorrectly can result in the premature ageing of not only our skin, but everything that happens within our bodies. Surprisingly, the ageing process starts quite early. Men’s skin can start to show signs of ageing in their late twenties, and women, due to their thinner skins, can already start showing signs in their mid-twenties. Eating good foods is not only a pleasure, it is essential to age with elegance and grace.
Our bodies are constantly changing throughout our life. In this article here the author has cleverly selected those foods that will support your body as it goes through age related changes in hormone balance, the capacity to burn fat, to build bone, and such like.
In general it is good to stay away from sugar, and fried and processed foods. These are all known to accelerate tissue damage, no matter what your age.
Foods to consider eating to enable elegant ageing:
Antioxidants
Berries and citrus fruit are rich in antioxidants. These compounds help prevent the cell damage that occurs through oxidation and free radicle activity that makes your body age faster. Berries are great to eat midmorning, rather than a sugary muffin or biscuit. Avocados are a great source of antioxidants and also vitamin E and potassium.Click here to make Master Chef, Siba Mtongana’s ‘Avocado and red bean salad’, you can watch the video of her preparing it, it is mouth-watering.
Leafy greens
Leafy greens are also loaded with antioxidants. Try Jamie Oliver’s Spinach lasagne to help fight the free radicles. You could replace the spinach with kale. Find the recipe here!
Fibre
Fibre-rich grains help a tired digestive system. Fibre literally keeps things moving, and helps eliminate the toxins from the body. Fibre also helps reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Try oats, brown rice and quinoa as excellent sources of fibre. Legumes, like butter beans and lentils, are full of antioxidants and minerals.
Water.
Get yourself a water filter jug for your desk, and one for home, and drink two to three litres of pure fresh water each day. Flavour the water with slices of fresh lemon, cucumber, strawberries or mint, it tastes good and looks appetising. All this water will keep your cells well hydrated and functioning optimally. Think of dried biltong; you don’t want to look like that, inside or out!
For information about a good, healthy way of eating log onto the MEMBER PORTAL and scroll down to – Road to wellness: General Health for general wellness tips. Or log onto MYPLAN to set up a personal eating plan.
