We’ve heard the saying, “We are what we eat.” As a midlifer striving to live out my best days in excellent health, this phrase takes on new meaning. Today, I’m diving deep into the dietary demons that speed up the aging process.
It seems simple enough to make sure we wear sunscreen daily to ward off wrinkles, not smoke, and drink in moderation. At the same time, limiting fast food, salt and sugar, and caffeine.
However, all things mentioned in the previous sentence are the dietary demons that speed up the aging process.
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 contributing 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, 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 these tempting goodies that have a strong 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 any refined sugar to function, and the American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to 100 to 150 calories per day.
Margarine
Science now says that margarine’s not better than butter. Why? Because margarine contains high amounts of partially hydrogenated oils. Swap olive oil for margarine or smear avocados, rich in anti-aging antioxidants.
Process meats
Hot dogs, pepperoni, deli meat, bacon, and sausage are all examples of 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 a great source of calcium which is essential for overall health. However, milk and other dairy products are the top sources of saturated fat, with unfortunate contributions to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Studies have also linked dairy to an increased risk of many cancers. As well as increase 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 a cup of coffee? Just know that caffeine is a diuretic, which means it pushes the water out of your body, 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.
