Over time, the car wears out. Similarly, our body becomes less effective with age. From the age of 30-40 years, cell wear causes tissues and organs to function worse. The good news is that there are ways to combat the aging process.
Physical activity
An essential tool to combat the age-related decline in cellular activity in your tissues and organs is physical activity. Aerobic exercise (such as jogging, cycling, or swimming) improves heart function, reduces cardiovascular disease risk, and protects the brain from cognitive impairment, such as dementia.
Strength training helps protect muscles from age-related deterioration. Any exercise also helps to speed up metabolism by adding revs to your engine. The more active you are, the more fuel you need to meet your daily needs. Statistics show that people’s physical activity is declining: it is about 20% lower than in the 1960s.
Therefore, your first step is to start moving and doing something that brings joy and pleasure, and the more diverse the activities, the better.
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Less fuel on low-load days
If you are comfortable at home, reduce the amount of energy-rich fuel (carbohydrates) in your diet. It is generally better to reduce carbohydrate intake at lunchtime or dinner, as we can offset the decrease by increasing our intake of proteins and vegetables. But even on such days, it is necessary to use proteins. So use protein-rich snacks such as yogurt, nut mixes, edamame, or protein shakes.
Here’s another rule: if you’re in your thirties, in your forties, or even more, you need to eat less than a decade ago.
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Early refueling
Don’t let your evening meal dominate your diet: eat more for breakfast and lunch to refuel your body on a difficult day. As always, the type of carbohydrates is essential. For a stable release of energy, try to add carbohydrates with a lower glycemic index: boiled sweet potatoes (its GI is more melancholy than baked), rye bread, oatmeal, basmati rice, quinoa (it’s never too late to get acquainted with this trendy grain crop), buckwheat and lentils.
Reduce the amount of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index: wheat, potatoes, rice bread, crackers, bagels, cakes, doughnuts, croissants, and most of the ready-made breakfast cereals.
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More fruits and vegetables
While you are young, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer are almost abstract concepts: they happen to the elderly, to other people. However, with age, such things become a harsh reality.
Eating fruits and vegetables reduces the likelihood of developing the diseases mentioned above, and the benefits here are great. A large-scale study of 65,226 people’s eating habits found a significant correlation between vegetable and fruit consumption and mortality at any age. If you consumed 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, the risk of death decreased by 36%, and those who ate more than seven servings of vegetables and fruits a day had a 42% risk of death. And recently it turned out that even more benefits give ten servings of vegetables and fruits a day.
Priority to squirrels
Fuel is needed to combat the aging process. And to do this, you need to eat medicinal products – proteins. When food is digested, the proteins break down into small building blocks, amino acids that enter the bloodstream and are transported to the muscles, where they are used to repair and create new muscle tissue. We call this process muscle growth or muscle protein synthesis.
There are many ways to do this:
- A portion of lean meat (or fish, or poultry)
- The inclusion of more nuts, seeds, or legumes in the diet
- Yogurt or eggs for breakfast
Breakfast and lunch are the foods that should be emphasized in terms of protein intake. Studies show that people prefer to have an intimate meal, and earlier meals make you smaller in volume, especially breakfast (breakfast consisting of toast with jam will not give you the right amount of protein). Adding a portion of Greek yogurt or a whey protein cocktail (not only do athletes use protein shakes), but you can also easily make up for the missing amount of protein.
