Aging is one of the most controversial issues. An antiaging diet is critical to confront aging. What you eat affects not only your energy or body fat but also your physiological age.
And it is that your body condition does not have to correspond to how old you are.
👉 You can look much younger and live much longer with the right diet and lifestyle!
Did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo, 33, has the biological age of a 20-year-old?
In the same way, there are people in their 30s who, because they do not train or eat well, have the health markers of a 40-year-old.
That is to say, your diet directly affects your cellular aging. If you don’t want to end up with the same markers as those young-old people, this week’s article will interest you.
You will discover the antiaging diet so that you add quality and durability to your life. You feel and look much better from now on.
Aspects that an antiaging diet should have
👉 A single nutrient will not activate your body’s cellular regeneration and antiaging mechanisms.
The most important thing is that you understand what must happen for your body to put its antiaging systems into operation.
For this to happen, you must take into account the following:
- Your antiaging diet should not activate the inflammatory branch (alarm the immune system)
- The immune system fulfills multiple bodily functions when your body is healthy and has no aggressions.
For example, it directs regenerative processes, removes waste and cells in poor condition. Regulates essential cells such as neurons or hepatocytes, and supports detoxifying processes.
Let’s say your immune system would be like the ranger that maintains the roads and removes weeds.
When it fulfills these functions, it can consume energy moderately without leaving residues after its activity.
On the other hand, when the body receives an attack, the immune system changes its activity and defends against the aggressor. This is what we call inflammation.
During the inflammatory process, the immune system consumes much more energy that will not be available for other bodily processes. It stops performing essential functions such as cell regeneration. In its activity, it produces free radicals associated with most of the aging mechanisms.
👉 For this reason, everything that we ingest with the potential to stimulate the inflammatory process should not be part of our day today.
To achieve this, you only have to follow these suggestions:
- Eat natural food, not processed or sweetened products. Products with more than five ingredients are usually designed to confuse your brain so that you consume more than you need.
- The amount of ingredients in these products makes them not recognizable as food and activates the immune system’s response as if it were an invader.
- Avoid or minimize cereals, legumes, and dairy. Although they have become predominant in our diet in recent years, they can provoke an inflammatory response.
The cause of inflammation from consuming these foods may be certain irritants present or contain proteins that humans cannot properly break down well.
Your antiaging diet should stimulate metabolic flexibility.
We define metabolic flexibility as the ability to use the optimal energy substrate for each situation.
The widespread consumption of predominantly carbohydrate meals leads to the metabolism of carbohydrates’ exclusive use as an energy substrate.
The combustion of glucose for energy generates an oxidative load greater than that produced by fats’ combustion.
Therefore, spacing meals and performing periods of the ketogenic diet (both tools stimulate fat as the primary fuel) are strategies for preventing metabolic rigidity and restoring flexibility.
Your antiaging diet should include fasting
One of the strategies with more evidence for stimulating cellular recovery processes is undoubtedly intermittent fasting.
👉 On multiple occasions, I have told you about the benefits of intermittent fasting:
Regulate your biorhythms
Improve your energy Recovers digestive processes
It is a simulator so that your cells always stay young.
The key is to vary the stimuli since the number of hours without eating in each fast makes the effect you get vary.
Tips for getting started with intermittent fasting
You can start with a minimum of 12 hours of fasting and 12 window hours in which you eat your meals.
Then, experience days where you do about 16 hours of fasting and 8 where you eat. You can also eat only once a day.
If you want to put these recommendations in hours, to make it easier for you, it would be something like eating between 12-13 hours until 20-21 hours.
If you eat a larger meal and are not hungry, wait to regain your hunger and thus prolong the fast.
Once you have adapted to spacing meals, you can try including a longer fast (48-72 hours) every 2-3 months in your antiaging diet.
Your diet should vary the total amount of protein
This is perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of the general premises.
On the one hand, there are quite a few studies. Most are still fundamental research, epidemiology, or observational of populations with a high percentage of people over 100 years old. That indicates the connection of moderate protein consumption with longevity.
This is because the protein stimulates mTor, a transcription factor that generates cell growth.
On the other hand, we know that conserving muscles is a determining factor in avoiding diseases as we age. This depends on adequate protein consumption (besides, of course, to stay active).
This apparent contradiction is not yet well resolved in the clinic to give you my opinion. If we comply with the 3 previous aspects, mainly the subject of fasts where we stimulate cell regeneration, the consumption of little protein is no longer so relevant and even counterproductive if we think that after fasting, it is essential that we manufacture new cells.
That is why my recommendation regarding this parameter would be based more on the level of physical activity and the quality of the protein you consume and would continue to generically recommend between 0.8 and 1.8 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight—raising the percentage in moments of seeking muscle gain.
Active principles that you should include in your antiaging diet
Some active principles that are present in the regeneration processes and that give us a clue about the foods that we will choose for our diet are:
Resveratrol
Resveratrol is a naturally occurring composite found primarily in the skin of red grapes and in the root of Polygonum cuspidatum, known as Japanese knotweed.
It is also present to a minor degree in peanuts and blueberries. Resveratrol protects plants in which it is present from the attack of fungi and the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation.
Numerous studies have shown resveratrol’s ability to delay or prevent various diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, and extend the lifespan of organisms ranging from yeast to vertebrates.
These protective effects are most probably a result of resveratrol’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Its ability to activate enzymes like sirtuin 1, or SIRT1, a type of enzyme that plays a role in aging and longevity.
Quercetin
Quercetin is a bioactive compound that exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties; research also indicates that it may help fight aging diseases.
It relieves chronic health conditions like hypertension, neurodegenerative diseases, arthritis, and lung and kidney diseases.
Quercetin is found in various fruits and vegetables, mostly red and yellow onions, capers, apples, blueberries, and bell peppers.
Regarding the antiaging effects, it seems that quercetin helps eliminate aging cells and can be replaced by others.
Spermidine
Spermidine is an aliphatic polyamine. From a physiological point of view, it is interesting because it synchronizes a series of biological processes associated many of them with the regulation of electrolytes. It is present in various foods such as mushrooms, cheese, or wheat germ.
Spermidine is a longevity agent in mammals due to several action mechanisms, which are only just beginning to be understood. It is mainly believed to be able to stimulate the cellular regeneration process known as autophagy.
Even so, we consider it, at least for the moment, the least interesting of the three active ingredients, as it must be concentrated in reasonably high amounts to achieve antiaging effects.
Conclusions
Without a doubt, in an antiaging diet, what to eat is as important as when to eat. Space your meals, and you will regenerate.
Avoiding foods with inflammatory potential makes it easier for the body to use energy to regenerate.
Once the first two premises have been met, including foods that contain resveratrol, quercetin and spermidine will give you a plus to activate your regeneration mechanisms.
Weekly antiaging menu
Next, we also want to add a weekly menu so you can see the type of meals that will make you avoid inflammation, feel better and, over time, you can lengthen and give quality to your life. You can download it at the button that you will find at the end of the article.
You already have all the material you need. From now on, rejuvenating is in your hands!
At Gearuptofit.com, we are very rigorous with the information we give you, so unlike other articles that you can find online, we will not recommend you eat one specific food or another.
Alex is a passionate fitness enthusiast dedicated to helping people lead healthier, more active lifestyles. He encourages small – sustainable changes over drastic transformations and works with people to create customized wellness plans. His mission is to help others benefit from the most effective methods available, sharing tips, strategies, and health & fitness tools on Gearuptofit.com to inspire people to live their best lives.