POSTED ON 23 JUNE 2010 BY BRODRICK KENT
It is evident that the foods we choose to eat not only affect our weight, moods and energy levels, but also how we age and the rate of aging. Diseases such as obesity, stroke, heart disease, chronic fatigue, diabetes, most cancers and many more, are conditions caused by body pollution, deficiencies, dietary excess and poor lifestyle choices.
One of life’s harsh realities is that all living things eventually die. However, the rate that we age our bodies, our health outcomes and quality of life is completely determined by our diet and lifestyle choices. Your chronological age is how many years you have been alive and breathing. Your biological age is determined by how quickly you are wearing your body out.
Humans must eat food to sustain life and to provide us with the energy to run our bodies.
All the energy in food comes from 3 elements, carbohydrates, fats and protein. These are called macronutrients. Nutrients are the non-caloric food factors such as vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals (antioxidants) and enzymes. These are classified as micronutrients.
When humans burn macronutrients (predominately carbohydrates and fats) for the energy to think, walk and talk, free radicals are produced in response to this energy production. Free radicals could be thought of as metabolic smoke, like when you burn wood, the byproduct is smoke. Free radicals are remnants of broken up oxygen particles resulting from the metabolism of food for energy. Free radical production is a natural occurrence of human metabolism. Only when there is an imbalance in diet and lifestyle do we start to accumulate excess free radicals and as a consequence they damage cells prematurely. In fact, free radicals are how and why we age and depending on how many we produce determines the rate of aging. This is a phenomenon called oxidative stress or burning oxidation. When scientists track disease back to the cellular level, it all starts with free radicals that have attacked cell tissue or DNA strands causing dysfunction, premature aging and disease.
So how does our dietary preferences effect free radicals accumulation and therefore the rate of aging? In natures grand plan it has created some free radical police to keep these damaging molecules under control. Because plants are out in the sun all day they have developed a self protection mechanism so that they don’t succumb to the suns blistering rays. Plants produce anti-oxidants through a process called photosynthesis, and as the name suggests, ‘anti-oxidants’ stop oxidation by neutralizing free radicals.
The only problem is at this present time most people consume diets that consist predominately of refined foods and animal products that contain lots of excess fat, cholesterol and calories with no or very minimal traces of antioxidants. As a result, people are blowing some serious smoke! Hence why we are dying from diseases of degeneration and deficiencies, even though we are consuming adequate calories or in most cases to many calories. Whole unrefined plant foods contain a balanced mixture of macro and micronutrients. When we metabolise the carbohydrates and fats in plants, a perfect ratio of antioxidants comes packaged together to offset any free radicals produced. The rate of aging comes down to your free radical cascade verses your antioxidant cascade.
Dr Paul Williams MD an E.R specialist from Atlanta Georgia, says that most human cells have around 50 lotted divisions before a cell becomes hampered and dies. The rate that you are running through the new cell divisions is the rate of aging. Dr. Williams also suggests that many factors such as, illness, smoking, exercise, emotional stress, pollution / toxins and poor dietary choices all affect free radical production and therefore the rate of aging. However, Dr. Williams concluded that the major influence on the rate of aging, is diet! There are many negative components to a diet high in refined carbohydrates, meat, chicken, dairy and egg's, but one distinct factor is an accumulation of free radicals in your blood and tissue, resulting in premature cell death.
The effects of poor diet and lifestyle are not always visible for some in the first 40 to 50 years because we have a 'stock reserve' of healthy cells at our disposal. However, when these reserves are used up prematurely we start aging at a more rapid rate. This generally occurs around the age of 50. So, depending how well you fuel your body in the first fifty years will determine your health outcomes, quality and the length of life on the home stretch.
A wise anti-aging formula would be to consume a diet that is nutrient dense and calorie dilute. Fruit, vegetables, beans, seeds and whole grains are all antioxidant rich foods and provide balanced nutrition in sink with your bodies energy needs (nutrient density = health longevity).
Brodrick Kent 15/12/10
