Foods That Age You

Instead of talking about foods that are good for you, we now focus on foods that age you:

Spicy Foods

Spicy food makes your blood vessels swell and even break, leading to purple marks on your face. If you have rosacea (common in women after menopause), the heat from spice can trigger a flare-up. It also raises your body temperature, so you sweat to cool back down. When sweat mixes with the bacteria on your skin, it can cause breakouts and blotches.

Margarine

Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and everything you eat affects it. Most margarines, especially the solid kind, have trans fats. They raise your “bad” cholesterol, lower your “good” kind, and create inflammation throughout your body. Inflammation is linked to heart disease and stroke, two conditions that can give you an aged appearance.

Sodas and Energy Drinks

The more sodas and energy drinks you consume, the quicker the cells in your tissues age. In addition to the fizz, they have more calories and added sugar (7 to 10 teaspoons in 12 ounces) than any other beverage. Combined with the bacteria in your mouth, that sugar also forms acid that wears down your tooth enamel and causes decay. Other cons include weight gain and a higher risk of stroke and dementia.

Frozen Dinners

One frozen dinner can pack in half the sodium of a healthy daily diet. When you have too much salt, it causes you to drink more than normal and flood your kidneys. Any extra water will move to places in your body that have less salt, like your face and hands. That is what makes you look puffy.

Alcohol

If you have ever had cotton mouth in the morning after a night of drinks, you know alcohol dehydrates you. This makes a big impact on your skin, which is 63% water. Even if you drink a big glass of water, it will hydrate all your other organs before your skin. When you do not get enough, your skin looks and feels dry, and cannot defend itself against wrinkles.

Processed Meats

Processed meats, like bacon, sausage, ham, and deli cuts, are smoked, cured, or salted so they will last longer without going bad. It is what makes them both delicious and dangerous. The sodium and chemical preservatives cause inflammation that can wear your body down inside and out. A little inflammation is good: it helps your cells heal. Too much can cause heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Fried Foods

The difference between dough and a doughnut is a nice long bath in boiling oil. That bath promotes free radicals, or unstable molecules that damage other molecules in your cells and add years to your skin. You can also find free radicals in other fried foods like french fries, hush puppies and mozzarella sticks. 

Baked Goods

Baked goods like cookies and cakes are high in artery-clogging fat that put on the pounds. They also do not skimp on sugar, which in excess can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, and tooth decay (among other things). Inflammation is another reason to skip that sundae. The more inflammation you have, the higher your chances of arthritis, depression, Alzheimer’s and some cancers.

Charred Meats

Frying or grilling meat at high temps creates advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. Low levels of AGEs are fine (your own body produces them), but high amounts from charred meats cause inflammation that “inflammages” your body and triggers heart disease and diabetes.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Table sugar’s chemical cousin, high-fructose corn syrup, sweetens sodas and fruit drinks. Among many other health drawbacks, it interferes with your body’s ability to use copper, which helps you form the collagen and elastin that keeps your skin healthy. It is also full of calories and puts you at risk for diabetes and heart disease.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a diuretic: it stimulates your brain and your need to urinate. This can cause dehydration. When you do not have enough water, your skin stops releasing toxins. The backup makes you more prone to dry skin, psoriasis and wrinkles.

Agave

Though it is better for your body than artificial sweeteners, agave is 90% fructose, a type of sugar that can be broken down only in your liver. When your liver is overworked, it turns fructose to fat and makes more free radicals, the compounds that damage your cells. 

Health Benefits of Spinach

 

Of all the leafy green vegetables, spinach is one of the most versatile. You can add it to smoothies, enjoy it in a chilled salad, steam and sauté it as a side dish, add it to a stir fry and even blend it into baked goods, like brownies. 

In fact, spinach has many health benefits:

Full of Nutrients

Three cups of raw spinach provide approximately 20 calories, less than one gram of fat, two grams of protein, three grams of carbohydrates and two grams of fiber. 

Though it has few calories, spinach is full of nutrients. A three-cup portion provides over 300% of the average daily value for vitamin K. The leafy green vegetable also provides over 160% and 40% of the average daily values for vitamin A and vitamin C, respectively. Vitamins K and A support strong bones while vitamin C helps heal wounds. 

Spinach also contains 45% of the average daily value for folate, a B vitamin that helps form red blood cells and DNA. It also supplies iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium and small amounts of other B vitamins. 

High in Antioxidants

Spinach provides antioxidants that link to anti-inflammation and disease protection. 

Some antioxidants in spinach include kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin, and isorhamnetin—also known as flavonoids, which are compounds that may help protect you against cancer, as well as cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. 

Thus eating more spinach may help curb chronic diseases—including heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and obesity. 

Helps Protect Against Diseases

The compounds found in spinach could reduce oxidative stress. They also positively influence gene expression—or the "turning on" of certain genes—in metabolism and inflammation. Additionally, these compounds trigger the release of satiety hormones that make you feel full and satisfied after eating spinach. 

Supports Brain Health

The anti-inflammatory effects of spinach make it a key contender for protecting the brain—specifically in terms of aging. 

Researchers found a significant decrease in the rate of cognitive decline among those who consumed larger amounts of leafy green vegetables than others. People who ate one to two servings of those vegetables daily had the same cognitive abilities as those approximately 7.5 years younger than their actual age. 

Helps Manage Blood Pressure

Spinach is also a source of nitrates, which are naturally-occurring chemicals. Nitrates open up or dilate blood vessels. That improves blood flow and eases stress on the heart. 

The spinach drink, as well as the beetroot juice and rocket salad drinks, also lowered blood pressure. 

May Help Eye Health

One of the antioxidants in spinach, lutein, may reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is an eye disease that can blur the sharp, central vision essential for reading and driving. It is a leading cause of vision loss for people aged older than 55 years. Consuming spinach may help curb AMD risk. 

Basically, you can add spinach to nearly any dish.  But after cooking, the vegetable's lutein content gradually decreased. So, it is important to consume spinach raw for maximum lutein intake. On the other hand, researchers found microwaving vegetables was the best way to preserve vitamin K. 

Steaming vegetables was the best way to preserve vitamin C. Cooking also diminished the vitamin E levels in spinach but increased the vitamin A content. That occurs when the plant walls become soft, which helps to release and absorb the nutrient. 

So, for the best results, mix up how you consume spinach—some raw, some cooked—but avoid overcooking.