We’ve heard the saying, “We are what we eat.” This phrase takes on new meaning as a midlifer striving to live out my best days in excellent health. Today, I’m diving deep into the dietary demons that speed up aging.
It seems simple enough to wear sunscreen daily to ward off wrinkles, not smoke, and drink in moderation. At the same time, we should limit fast food, salt, sugar, and caffeine.
However, everything mentioned in the previous sentence is dietary demons speeding up aging.
You’ve heard it all before. It’s nothing new: fries, white bread, white sugar, margarine, processed meats, dairy, caffeine, and alcohol.
The Dietary Demons:
Fries/Chicken Wings/Deep Fried Pub Foods/Chicken Fingers/Donuts
Foods fried in hydrogenated oil at high temperatures release free radicals. Exposure to free radicals accelerates the aging process and contributes to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
White Bread
Refined carbs like white bread quickly convert to glucose, directly linked to a spike in blood sugar levels, contributing to obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
White Sugar
Refined or white sugar may increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Salt
High-sodium snacks like chips, cheese puffs, pretzels, and snack crackers, usually made with vegetable oil, also have high sodium.
Consuming too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, fluid retention, and draw water from the skin, causing wrinkles.
Refined Sugar/Sweets
Chocolate bars, candy, and baked goods are tempting goodies that have a solid link to weakening the immune system and robbing the body of collagen.
Health issues: weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Your body doesn’t need refined sugar to function, and the American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to 100 to 150 calories daily.
Margarine
Science now says that margarine is not better than butter. Why? Because margarine contains high amounts of partially hydrogenated oils. Swap olive oil for margarine or smear avocados, which are rich in anti-aging antioxidants.
Process meats
Hot dogs, pepperoni, deli meat, bacon, and sausage are all processed meats harmful to the body and skin. Why?
Processed meats contain nitrates. Nitrates prevent salmonella and bacteria from residing in cured meats. They also form nitrosamines, cancer-causing chemicals in the body.
Dairy
Dairy is an excellent source of calcium, which is essential for overall health. However, milk and other dairy products are the top sources of saturated fat, which unfortunately contributes to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Studies have also linked dairy to an increased risk of many cancers and to increased inflammation in the body.
Soda
The sugar from soda is damaging to your oral health, with the risk of type 2 diabetes. There is still controversy with diet soda containing artificial sweeteners.
Caffeine
Don’t we all love to start our day with coffee? Just know that caffeine is a diuretic, pushing the water out of your body and dehydrating you. The more cups you drink, the more dehydrated you become.
Too much caffeine accelerates the aging of your skin.
Alcohol
An occasional glass of wine sounds great, especially red wine’s resveratrol, which lowers the risk of heart disease. But know that binge drinking and excessive alcohol consumption will damage the liver.
And leave a trail of damaging free radicals.
Don’t let any of these dietary demons accelerate your aging process. We have control over what we put in our mouths. Eat everything in moderation.
As always, thank you for visiting me.
