Learn on the kind of foods that promote longevity. Check out the article we found over at Mercola.
By Dr. Mercola
One of your most basic health principles is to eat real food. This will radically reduce your exposure to the tens of thousands of chemicals added to processed foods, most of which are not even on the label.
Many are still under the illusion that whole grains are good for you, but while this may have held true for your grandparent’s generation, it’s not true today. The thing that people tend to forget is that virtually all grain products you buy today have gone through industrial processing.
Grains have also been altered through time, and growing methods differ significantly from even a generation or two ago. We also prepare grains differently these days.
Sprouted whole organic grains may be the lone exception to my recommendation to avoid grains, but all those whole grain loaves of bread, whole grain pastas, and whole grain cereals — they’re actually processed foods, and are best replaced.
You can read more about these issues in Authority Nutrition’s article, “Modern Wheat – Old Diet Staple Turned into a Modern Health Nightmare.” That said, even among whole foods, some stand out as VIPs above others.
Health.com recently published a list of 18 foods packed with health-promoting compounds like antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals known to play a role in longevity.
With the exception of whole grains and beans, I largely agree with their selection, which I’ve added to here.
Beverages That Promote Longevity
Basic of basics: drink plenty of pure water. I believe the single most powerful intervention you can make for your health would be to stop drinking sodas and juices, and replace them with pure water.
Staying well-hydrated can also counteract many common ills, from minimizing wrinkles to reducing your risk for blood clots. Severe dehydration has even been shown to reduce your cognitive function and performance to a similar degree as alcohol, making you more prone to car accidents and other mishaps.
Certain types of tea and coffee can also have health-promoting benefits. Green tea, for example, has been shown to lower your risk of heart disease and cancer when consumed at least three times a week.
Drinking four to five cups of green tea daily has also been shown to promote weight loss. Participants who drank this amount of green tea for four months lost an average of two pounds more than those who didn’t drink green tea.
Coffee — while it could do more harm than good if consumed in excess or with added sugar, artificial sweeteners, milk, or creamers — also has an impressive list of redeeming qualities, including longevity.
Research suggests coffee can lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, stroke, and certain cancers. It also helps increase the metabolic activity and/or numbers of beneficial Bifidobacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.
The caveat here is to make sure your coffee is organic, as conventional coffee tends to be heavily sprayed with pesticides. Ideally use whole-bean black coffee — the darker the roast, the better. Roasted coffees are higher in neuroprotective agents than green (unroasted) coffees.
One study found that dark roast coffee restored blood levels of the antioxidants vitamin E and glutathione more effectively than light roast coffee. The dark roast also led to a significant body weight reduction in pre-obese volunteers, whereas the lighter roast did not.
Dark Chocolate, Another Winner
Then there’s chocolate. Provided you stick with dark chocolate, gut bacteria will break down and ferment its components, turning them into anti-inflammatory compounds that benefit your health.
In fact, research has linked dark chocolate consumption to over 40 distinct health benefits, including longevity. As noted in the featured article:
“A 1999 Harvard study of 8,000 men discovered that those who ate chocolate as many as three times a month lived a year longer than those who didn’t.”
The closer your cocoa is to its natural raw state, the higher its nutritional value; ideally, your chocolate or cocoa should be consumed raw (cacao).
Bring on the Veggies!
Vegetables contain an array of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds. Some plant chemicals can reduce inflammation and eliminate carcinogens, while others regulate the rate at which cells reproduce, get rid of old cells and maintain DNA. Leafy greens are basic staples with not-so-basic health benefits.
Researchers at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Molecular Immunology division discovered that a gene, called T-bet, which is essential for producing critical immune cells in your gut, responds specifically to leafy green vegetables. Those immune cells are thought to play an important role in controlling inflammatory diseases, and may even prevent the bowel cancer.
According to the featured article, eating one cup of cooked greens per day cut middle-aged people’s risk of dying in the next four years in half, compared to those who didn’t eat any leafy greens. Other power players in the vegetable kingdom include the following:
- Broccoli contains dozens, maybe even hundreds, of super-nutrients that support optimal health, including immune-boosting and anti-cancer compounds. Eating broccoli raw, as opposed to cooked, will help protect its nutrients. Broccoli sprouts are an even more nutritionally potent way to enjoy broccoli.
- Sprouts may offer some of the highest levels of nutrition available, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes that help protect against free radical damage. Many of the benefits of sprouts relate to the fact that plants contain more concentrated amounts of nutrients in their initial phase of growth.
Sunflower seed and pea shoots, for example, are both typically about 30 times more nutritious than organic vegetables, and are among the highest in protein.
- Fermented vegetables: Almost everyone has damaged gut flora these days, unless you’re part of the minority that eats a strict organic whole foods diet and avoids antibiotics. Fermented vegetables are one of the most palatable fermented foods that can provide you with a robust dose of beneficial bacteria, which are critically important for optimal physical and mental health.
Controlling Inflammation Is Key for Longevity
The running thread linking a wide variety of common health problems — from obesity and diabetes to heart disease and cancer — is chronic inflammation. The key to reducing chronic inflammation in your body starts with your diet, and as you can see, the vast majority of the foods listed above tend to have anti-inflammatory activity.
The same cannot be said for processed foods, which as a general rule tend to be pro-inflammatory, courtesy of ingredients like added sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, soy, and processed vegetable oils (trans fats), and can contain some of the tens of thousands of chemicals that snuck through the GRAS loophole and are not even required to be listed on the label, despite the fact they’ve never previously been tested for safety in humans.
Replacing processed foods with real foods can make a significant difference in your overall health and weight, and ultimately determine how long you’ll live.
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