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Top Anti-Aging Foods for Beautiful Skin
Dear Beauty Reader,
Today, I’ll share three of my favorite anti-aging foods with you that are also great for your skin.
Adding these foods to your diet is a helpful first step to getting the anti-aging nutrients you need to look good, feel good and keep moving into your 80s, 90s and beyond.
Anti-Aging Food #1: Blueberries. These little berries are best known as an antioxidant powerhouse. In fact, they have more antioxidants than almost any other food. And that’s important to your skin, because your body uses antioxidants to fight the free-radical damage that makes you look older, faster.
The antioxidants in blueberries also help your body manufacture collagen and keep your skin supple and smooth. Blueberries also are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin E, riboflavin and fiber.
But blueberries can help you in other ways, too, by:
- Reducing blood pressure and cholesterol. I just read a study that showed how subjects given a blueberry drink saw oxidized LDL cholesterol (the form that clogs arteries) in their blood drop by 28 percent. Their blood pressure went down by 6 percent, too.1
- Sharpening your vision. Recent studies show that chemicals in blueberries – called anthocyanins – have a positive effect on your vision (visual pigments) and the overall health of your eyes. The researchers also found that other chemicals in blueberries help your body combat free-radical damage to retinal cells.2
- Keeping your mental edge. After just 12 weeks of drinking blueberry juice, people in one study with mild memory problems showed improved memory and thinking skills. Even their moods got better.3
That’s quite an anti-aging boost from a tiny berry. But my next selection gets down to the very roots of aging.
Anti-Aging Food #2: Wild-caught salmon. It’s not only delicious but an incredible anti-aging superfood. I’ve been recommending three or four servings weekly of this cold-water, fatty fish to my patients and readers for years.
Here’s why …
The lifespan of your cells is regulated by telomeres – protective “caps” on the end of your chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, its telomeres get a little shorter. Eventually, these protective caps become too short, the cell can’t safely reproduce … and it dies.
Magnify this process by millions upon millions of cells and you’ve got the aging process.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish like wild-caught salmon promote longer telomeres. In this study, the people who got the most omega-3s from marine sources had the longest telomeres.4
In other words, their cells could go on dividing longer … and defy the aging process.
But that’s not all omega-3s do.
French scientists found omega-3s also support better memory and cognitive function – perception, thinking and reasoning. Over a seven-year period, test subjects with the highest levels of two omega-3s – EPA and DHA – scored higher on memory and reasoning tests.5
A lack of omega-3s can dry your skin out. And studies show they help reduce your skin’s sensitivity to the sun’s damaging rays.6
Wild-caught salmon is loaded with high-quality protein, too. And you need plenty of protein to maintain lean muscle as you get older.
And speaking of muscles, this leads me to my favorite anti-aging food of all …
Anti-Aging Food #3: Grass-fed beef. It’s another muscle-booster. But that’s not the main reason it’s one of my favorites.
Grass-fed beef is a terrific source of CoQ10 – much richer than feedlot beef. And CoQ10 helps keep your cells running smoothly – even aging cells. CoQ10 improves the function of mitochondria – the tiny “engines” that power your cells.
CoQ10 also can have a direct effect on your appearance. As you get older, you produce more of an enzyme called arNOX that promotes skin aging. CoQ10 inhibits arNOX activity. In one study, CoQ10 cut arNOX production by almost a third.7
And the other benefits of eating grass-fed beef: It contains high levels of omega-3s and vitamins A, D and E.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1 Basu, A, et al, “Blueberries decrease cardiovascular risk factors in obese men and women with metabolic syndrome,” J. Nutr. Sept. 2010;140(9):1582-7
2 Kalt, W, et al, “Recent research on polyphenolics in vision and eye health,” J. Agric. Food Chem. Apr. 14, 2010; 58(7):4001-7
3 Krikorian, R., et al, “Blueberry supplementation improves memory in older adults,” J. Agric. Food Chem. Apr. 14, 2010;58(7):3996-4000
4 Farzaneh-Far, R., et al, “Association of marine omega-3 fatty acid levels with telomeric aging in patients with coronary heart disease,”JAMA Jan. 20, 2010;303(3):250-7
5 Samieri, C., et al, “Omega-3 fatty acids and cognitive decline: modulation by ApoEepsilon4 allele and depression,” Neurobiol. Aging June 4, 2010
6 University of Maryland, “Omega 3 Fatty Acids,” http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm
7 Morrél, D.M., et al, “Supplementation with CoQ10 lowers age-related (ar) NOX levels in healthy subjects,” Biofactors 2008;32(1-4):221-30
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