Aging and getting older involves much more than just the number of birthdays we celebrate and our genetics.
Science and experience show us how diet and nutrition affect our skin and bones. Now we need to understand that they play an important role in the aging process and our life expectancy.
Free Report: 9 Healthy Things You Can Do To Help You Live LongerWhy Your Diet Can Affect Your Life Expectancy
As our bodies age, changes happen in all our body systems.
These changes are influenced by stress, illness, genetics, and socioeconomic factors.
Some of these changes include:
- Changes in your senses: A decrease in sight and peripheral vision, hearing, smell, and taste. These affect what and how we eat.
- Changes in muscle mass: Reduced muscle mass affects our vital organ function, with the most important being the heart. These are influenced by what we eat.
- Changes in metabolism: A result of the loss of lean body mass is a decrease in energy metabolism. The end result of this is increased body fat. These are influenced by what we eat.
- Bone density: Reduced bone density is natural and can be slowed by exercise and the food we eat.
All of these affect how long we will live, and nutrition has a role in every one of them.
Eat Well and Eat Healthy
Keeping your diet simple with a focus on low-salt and low-fat foods, plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and many chronic diseases.
Eating a variety of foods makes it easy to give your body what it needs to age well while you enjoy the process.
Food and food types you can keep in your diet include:
- Protein: This is needed to maintain and rebuild muscles. Get low-fat, quality protein from poultry, fish, eggs, and limited amounts of nuts and low-fat meat and dairy.
- Carbohydrates: the body’s preferred source of energy. Make sure you are eating complex carbohydrates that come from vegetables and grains. Fruits contain vitamins and fiber; complex carbohydrates contain vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Get most of your carbohydrate calories from vegetables, grains, and fruits.
- Fat: provides energy. Get your fat from polyunsaturated fats (liquid corn oil or soybean oil) and monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados, and nuts). Eat less beef, pork, veal, butter, and cheese because they are high in saturated fats.
- Water: Be sure to drink plenty of water each day.
It isn’t difficult to keep to a diet of these foods. Actually, it’s pretty easy.
Look in the produce aisles for your nutritional needs. Research has shown that when vitamins, minerals, and other compounds needed by our bodies are obtained by eating certain foods – in combination – we receive a big benefit in quality nutrition that will help us age better and live longer.
Free Download: 9 Things To Help Your Life Expectancy
You probably already know that the way you choose to live your life has some effect on how long you’ll live. But, believe it or not, we do actually have some degree of control over our life expectancy!
If you want to know exactly where you should be focusing your efforts to live a healthier lifestyle check out my free download Top 9 Things You Can Do For Your Health To Help You Live Longer. The choices you make about your lifestyle don’t mean that you and your loved ones have to live shorter lives.
