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Language: en
Have you ever wondered if what you're
eating could actually be helping or
hurting the way that you age? Many
research studies have shown that the
foods that we eat can have a direct
impact on the aging process, either
speeding it up or slowing it down. And
this can influence everything from our
skin health, our wrinkles to muscle
strength to our brain function. Is one
of these silent killers because it
actually raises our blood pressure. And
over time, it can cause tremendous
amounts of vascular damage setting us up
for stroke. When they studied large
populations, they found that those
people who consumed the highest level of
foods containing these antioxidant
polyphenols actually showed the fewest
visible signs of aging. And when they
compared the eaters, all right, to
people who didn't eat, they found that
people who didn't eat had more wrinkles
and more skin sagging. All right, the
first thing I'm going to tell you for
more natural healthier aging and to slow
the aging process is to eat
[Music]
[Applause]
Have you ever wondered if what you're
eating could actually be helping or
hurting the way that you age? As a
physician, I've seen firsthand how food
can be a powerful tool in slowing down
the aging process. And it's not just
about feeling good today. It's about
making the right choices to preserve
your health and vitality for the years
ahead to come. And if you're interested
in longevity, like so many people are
today, then you'll want to watch this
video to the end because I'm going to
actually show you exactly what foods you
should be eating and which ones you
should avoid in order to protect your
body from the inside out. And here's the
thing. Many research studies have shown
that the foods that we eat can have a
direct impact on the aging process.
Either speeding it up, which is not what
you want, or slowing it down, which is
actually beneficial. And this can
influence everything from our skin
health, how we look, our wrinkles, uh
any sagging to muscle strength, how
strong we are, to our brain function.
Hey, where did I leave the keys? Or I
know exactly where I left the keys. You
know what I'm saying? So, here's a
couple of examples. A diet that's high
in polyphenols. All right. Polyphenols
like corsetin, which is found in apples
and onions and capers, or
pro-anthocyanins, which is found in um
ch dark chocolate or anthocyanins, which
are found in blueberries. These can help
slow down cellular aging. Okay? They're
antioxidant. They protect our DNA and
they have anti-inflammatory properties.
And inflammation is one of the hallmarks
of fast aging. Another example of foods
that can be helpful to slow down aging
are healthy fats. Which ones? Well, like
omega-3s, you know, in seafood or you
can get it in a dietary supplement. And
and monounsaturated fatty acids that you
would actually find in extra virgin
olive oil,
EVO, also supports this process of
better, slower aging. Okay. And in part,
it's thanks to your ability to lower
inflammation in your body and promote
cellular health. So, that's the good
news. Now, I got to also tell you the
flip side. On the flip side,
ultrarocessed foods, you know, the
snacks you get in the middle aisle of
the grocery store, uh, or at new airport
news stands or at a gas station, these
kind of ultrarocessed foods often
contain factory added ingredients.
They're called additives. And some of
the additives that are the um bad guys
that for for in terms of art uh healthy
aging are artificial coloring,
artificial flavoring, artificial
preservatives, artificial sweeteners,
pretty much anything that's artificial.
Um thickeners, uh and of course added
sugar, which is really a burden to our
metabolism. And here's another one that
you might not have thought about. Um not
in sweets, but in uh savory or salty
snacks. high levels of sodium. Sodium is
one of these silent killers because it
actually raises our blood pressure and
over time it can cause tremendous
amounts of vascular damage setting us up
for stroke and um cardiovascular disease
and many other problems including kidney
problems. All right. So additives uh can
accelerate the aging process whereas
more natural whole foods actually can
slow down the aging process. Okay. So,
what are some of the ways that we would
be able to tell that our food is helping
or hurting? Well, I think you know the
signs. For example, wrinkles, uh, um,
memory problems, uh, uh, cognitive
decline, uh, weaker muscles, you know,
trying to open that pickle jar or, uh,
open that car door. If it's harder,
well, you're not probably weakening your
muscles. All right? And loss of balance.
This is actually something that's pretty
important, right? When you were a kid,
you could easily stand like a stalk on
one leg, maybe even on a fence or on a
log. Try doing it when you're 40 or 50
or 60. And you'll see um that the the
sense of balance is changed. And it's
partly it's because of your brain,
partly due to your muscles, partly due
to your nerves. These are all signs of
aging. Now, the last thing that you want
to do is to risk aging more quickly,
faster aging. All right? And uh and by
the way, the same processes like
inflammation that speed up your aging
also set you up at risk for chronic
diseases. Which ones? Diabetes, type two
diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
cancer, and dementia. Obviously, if you
want longevity, you've got to dodge
those diseases that will take you out
too early or make your quality of life
miserable no matter how many years you
actually have. So, you don't want to
actually speed up aging. You don't want
chronic diseases. In that case, what are
some of the foods that are better and
supportive of healthy aging? Are you
ready? Let's talk about them. All right.
The first thing I'm going to tell you
for more natural, healthier aging and to
slow the aging process is to eat more
colorful fruits and vegetables. All
right. What do I mean by colorful fruits
and vegetables? Well, you know, uh, uh,
berries, very colorful, uh, bell
peppers, uh, fruits, apples and oranges
and lemons and limes and grapes. All
right, you can tell all these, uh,
colorful, uh, foods, stone fruits,
peaches and pears and plums. I mean,
think about it. You go to the farmers
market and you see big piles of these,
uh, fruits and vegetables. It's like
looking at a rainbow, like a
kaleidoscope of color. Okay, now here's
the thing. The natural substances that
give fruits and vegetables their
beautiful colors, their their diverse
colors are actually polyphenols.
Polyphenols that protect your body
against the stress of aging, protected
against free radical damage, which
damages your DNA. These are stresses
kind of a chemical stress and protect
you from inflammation as well. All
right, this idea of stress, free radical
damage, and inflammation, these are just
some three of the key drivers of
premature aging. So, when you want to
eat the rainbow, you're actually
opposing or countering some of these key
parts of aging. You're countering uh
stress, countering damage to your DNA
from free radicals, and you're
countering inflammation. This is really,
really important. Now, researchers from
China have published in Frontiers of
Nutrition, which is one of the big
journals, that berries, strawberries,
blueberries, blackberries, raspberries
are especially good at reducing that
kind of oxidative stress that stresses
out your cells, speeds up aging, so it
reduces that process. And that berries
lower inflammation. Okay? And in fact,
when they studied large populations,
they found that those people who
consumed the highest level of foods
containing these antioxidant
polyphenols actually showed the fewest
visible signs of aging. Their skin
looked better, looked less aged, less
wrinkled or less sagging. Um, and when
they compared the berry eaters, all
right, to people who didn't eat berries,
um, they found that, uh, the people who
didn't eat berries had more wrinkles and
more skin sagging. Really important. All
right. So, this is actually visible. You
can actually see it. The take-home point
here is that polyphenol rich foods and
fiber richch foods too. These fruits,
these berries contain dietary fiber. In
fact, pound-for-pound, raspberries are
one of the most fiber richch foods um
that are out there. All right? But
polyphenols and dietary fiber, um,
raspberries, strawberries, blueberries,
dark chocolates, another one with
polyphenols and some dietary fiber and
nuts, tree nuts, almonds, cashews,
macadamia, walnuts. All right, these
foods actually protect your DNA. They
protect against cellular stress and they
lower inflammation. And as a result,
this is what the researchers have been
finding. They actually help to protect
your skin against the ravages of aging,
improve elasticity. That's the
stretchiness of your skin. They support
healthy cell turnover. What's health
turnover? Well, it's your new skin
replacing your old skin, right? We all
know that old skin doesn't look that
great. New skin rejuvenates it, right?
You ever have a facial or a sin skin
scrub? You see all that stuff that comes
off of it. All right? that's exposing
the new skin and getting sloughing off
the old skin. So your skin looks
fresher, less wrinkled, less saggy,
okay? More has has more resiliency. So,
how do you do this? Well, I recommend
just adding just a handful of fresh
berries um to your breakfast every day.
Or if you're having oatmeal or yogurt,
what great foods to ask dairy to because
they're also healthy. The oatmeal
contains beta dlucan, which is and lots
of fiber for your gut health. Um, yogurt
is a probiotic food. I always get whole
yogurt, add some berries to them. That's
a way of lighting up your polyphenol
load starting right off the at the
beginning of the day. The other thing
you could do is nibble on a small square
of dark chocolate. All right. Now, how
dark? Most of the studies show the
darker the better. All right. So, I say
80 85% or better. That's pretty dark.
And that kind of dark chocolate's kind
of bitter. So, here's my practical tip
for you. Um, take a square of really
dark chocolate. Um, and if it's too
bitter for you, combine it with a cup of
black coffee. All right? Coffee plus
chocolate equals mocha. So, if you
actually have coffee, which is also
slowing down the ravages of aging, and
dark chocolate. You could put the
chocolate right in there, or you could
get ch cocoa powder, dark chocolate
powder, stir it up in there. And now you
make your own mocha or just eat it
together. Sip some coffee, nibble on a
chocolate. It's the same effect. It's
just naturally in your tongue as opposed
to uh in the cup. Now, here's the other
thing. Another practical tip. I
recommend keeping a small bowl of mixed
nuts. All right. Again, walnuts,
pistachios, pecans, cashews. Um, I just
made some uh uh toasted cashews and I
put on some uh rosemary powder um a
little bit to light up the spice. And
rosemary has rosemic acid which is also
anti-inflammatory and slows down
cellular aging. All right. Um and so
when you eat some those nuts, you
actually get some healthy fats. You get
lots of dietary fiber, feeds your gut
microbiome, and inflammation comes down.
with lower inflammation, you actually
have you're countering those effects of
aging.
Okay, that's my first tip. Second
tip, to slow down the effects of
cellular aging, I recommend you
incorporate healthy fats uh into your
diet. And guess where some of the
biggest benefits are? That's right, in
your brain. You want healthier brain
aging, you want to have healthier fats.
So, you know, you might say, "Dr. Lee,
aren't all fats bad?" Not really.
Actually, our body needs fat, some fat
to actually survive. Healthy fats, um,
everything in moderation. But healthy
fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which you
can get from seafood, not just salmon,
mackerel, and sardines and anchovies,
they actually have a lot of good
omega-3s. But you can even get it from
um lighter white flesh fish that don't
look like they're oily, but they
actually have omega-3s. Cod, h, halibit,
flounder, um, and even seafood like
clams and muscles and squid, shrimp,
lobsters, crab. They also have omega-3s
as well. Okay, they live in a sea. At
the end of the day, they're nibbling on
things that actually have the plankton
that actually contain the omega-3s. So,
they get some of the benefits as well.
So, you eat that, you get the benefits.
Point is, healthy fats lead to healthy
brain. As we age, we want our brain or
noggin to be really, really sharp. You
don't like seafood or you can't get
seafood or you're allergic to seafood.
Omega-3 dietary supplements worth it.
Okay. one of the few supplements that I
think we probably don't get enough of
the that the uh actual real deal from
our whole foods. So, I'm cool with
actually supplementing or topping off
with omega-3s. Now, how do we know this
is important? Well, um at least when it
comes to omega-3s, healthy omega-3s, uh
researchers at Chingda University in
China actually did a study and they
published this in the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition and they found
that the omega-3s are too fine in foods.
Like I said, salmon, flax seed, walnuts,
they can lower inflammation in the body.
And by lowering inflammation, they
counter uh the uh uh ravages of aging.
But they found that countering is
actually in cognitive function. That's
brain function, executive functions. So
here's what they did. These researchers
looked at more than a 100,000 people.
And they found that those who ate more
omega-3s, regardless of the source, were
less likely less likely to experience
memory loss, okay, or cognitive decline
as they get older. Very, very important.
In fact, just upping the amount of
omega-3s um uh daily, all right, just
increasing omega-3s every day. How do
you do that? take a supplement every
single day led to a 10% lower risk of
developing cognitive issues. Right? So,
this adds to the growing evidence that
our brain function is something we can
nurture even as we age to counter the
ravages of being elderly. So, most of us
think of look at really old people and
we go, "Wow, I never want to be like
that." Well, there are lots of older
people who have really sharp brain
function and those are people you want
to be like. All right. And omega-3s are
actually one of those things that can
help to fight dementia and cognitive
decline. All right. Now, I'm a scientist
as well as a doctor. So, I'm going to
tell you the questions I ask is, well,
how do omega-3s work? Well, it turns out
omega-3s lower brain inflammation.
Remember, inflammation is one of those
hallmarks of aging. As you age, you
become more inflamed. So, omega-3s
counter that. And that seems to be key
to keeping our brains actually sharp.
Okay, let me give you some practical
tips about omega-3s. All right, as I
said, you can eat seafood. All the lists
I gave you, the salmon, the the
mackerel, or the cod or the hake or
shrimp and clams and muscles and squid.
All right. Um, and by the way, not only
is it beneficial for your brain, it's
also beneficial for your heart. Omega-3s
are well known to be beneficial to
cardiovascular disease. They actually
help the lining of your blood vessels,
your endothelial cell lining. I study
blood vessels, so I know a lot about
this. 60,000 miles worth of blood
vessels in your body. Omega-3 has helped
to pave the road, the highways along
those 60,000 miles of of the journey.
Every bit of oxygen that we breathe and
every nutrient that we eat has to fly
down these highways and byways in your
body. Omega-3s make that process really,
really good. Okay. What's another
healthy fat? Well, I alluded to this
earlier. Extra virgin olive oil. Now,
there are some omega-3s. There are some
monounsaturated fatty acids and
omega-3s. All good for vascular health.
All good for brain health. But extra
virgin olive oil has polyphenols like
hydroxyol and
oolioanthol. Now, these are super potent
anti-inflammatory polyphenols that can
lower inflammation everywhere in your
body, including your brain. All right.
How much omega-3s do you need to eat? Uh
uh well, you know, in fish about this
amount in the of fish, a piece of fish
about the size of a deck of cards. All
right. How what about extravirgin olive
oil? Well, anywhere between 3 to four
tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
has been associated with better health,
better aging, um overall better organ
health, right? You might say 3 to four
tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Man, that seems like a lot. Well, if you
go to the Mediterranean, and I did a gap
year before I went to medical school,
and I lived in the Mediterranean in
Italy and Greece, you can find foods
that are actually cooked um with extra
virgin olive oil. Um and you know, when
you're cook cooking the process, check
out some recipes. You'll see quite a bit
of extra virgin olive oils used. Um and
when you eat it over the course of
breakfast, lunch, dinner, okay, it's
pretty easy to get three to four
tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Now, I always tell people if you're
going to get olive oil, get the ones
that have the highest amount of
polyphenols. And you may have heard me
mention this before, but I'll say it
again. There are three types of olive
oil, okay? Three types of olives used to
make olive oil that have the highest
levels of
polyphenols. There is a uh Spanish olive
called the Piku, P I C U L olive, very
high in polyphenols. Fortunately, it's a
very common olive in Spain. So, uh the
second one in Italy is cor is morolo.
Morolo is from Umbria, although you can
find them in other uh olive groves
throughout Italy. Um less common, a
little bit more expensive. Um uh and
then in Greece, Greek olive oil, you
look for um olive olive oil made with
corooni
olives. These are from the pelpinesis
the southern part of Greece between
Corki olives, morayolo olives and piku
olives. These are three varietals of
olives that are super high in these
healthy in inflammation lowering
polyphenols that are good for uh brain
health uh uh as we age to counter that
inflammation. So how do you find these
uh when you go to a grocery store? Well,
listen, I used to be confused by this.
You go to this huge wall of different
types of extra virgin olives. Here's
what I do. I look for Greek. I look for
Italian. I look for Spanish olive oil.
Fortunately, there's there's quite a lot
of choices to choose from. Then I look
for monoarietal. Monoaridal means that
inside that bottle is extra virgin olive
oil that comes from one and only one
variety of of uh of olive. Pikol from
Spain, Keki from Greece. These are two
very easy ones to find. moro from Italy
from Umria a little bit more difficult
but if you're having trouble finding
these mono varietal uh olive oils uh in
your grocery store made with Piku Coroni
or Moriola olives guess what you can
order them online all right ju just
enter in the names of those olives
monovaral olive oil and they'll ship it
to your house okay now look olive oil is
sort of liquid gold um it tastes great
it read the polyphenols which should
give you a little bit of that
peppery and zing in the back of your
throat after you have it. Little bit of
sourdough bread. All right, a great way
to have um have it. Or if I'm cooking
eggs, and by the way, eggs are also good
for the brain for brain health. I don't
use butter or I don't use seed oils. I
actually use extravirgin olive oil. Now,
you get the polyphenols in your
scrambled eggs as well or your uh or
your fried egg. So little practical tips
I think would be useful for you to
understand how to do this. Now I got one
more tip I want to tell you about okay
to help counter the effects of aging and
that is now this one is an avoidance
which is to cut down or cut out sugar
and lots of refined carbohydrates. And
here's the reason added sugar like sugar
from fruits and stuff totally fine.
Added sugars is what you put in soda.
All right. um nine teaspoons worth of
cane sugar in a typical can of soda.
Refined carbs um you know really ultra
uh purified flowers for example very
common in the western diet. You find
them in pasta and bread and cakes and
cookies, lots of snacks. All right. And
here's the problem. the added sugar and
super refined carbs. If you have enough
of it, they can actually cause your bo
body to form from them AES. Age, right?
Sounds like getting older. Well, it does
um make you get older. Advanced A
Glycation EN product. A G advanced
glycation end product. These are
basically um kind of uh uh little tiny
polymers that your body will form if you
overload it with carbs and sugar. All
right? So, I'm not talking about eating
fruit. I'm not talking about eating
whole grains. I'm not even talking about
eating sourdough bread unless you eat a
ton of it. All right? I'm talking about
eating the white bread stuff. All right?
And the added sugar and drinking the the
the sodas. All right? This is what a lot
of us grew up on. can tell you your body
at some point can get overwhelmed and
begin to form a age and advanced
glycation end products actually do make
you age. How do we know this? Well,
researchers from Dartmouth Medical
School, okay, published an article in
clinics and dermatology and found that
people who eat diets that are loaded
high in sugar and refined carbohydrates,
all right, added sugars, they have when
you look in their bloodstream, all
right, they have high levels of AES in
their body. So, what does A what do AES
do? Guess what? AES when they're running
around all over your body, okay, they
can damage proteins like collagen and
elastin. Now, why am I mentioning
collagen elastin? Well, remember we're
talking about age that you can actually
see. First place that people look is
skin. All right, your skin is supported
by collagen and elastin. Your elasticity
of your face due to elastin. So if AES
from adding eating too many added sugars
and refined carbohydrates damage
collagen elastin, guess what? Your
skin's not going to hold up as well.
It's going to start to sag. All right?
And wherever the skin needs to be
stretched taut. Um if you start
weakening the structure, it starts to
fold on itself. And now what do you get?
You got a wrinkle. All right? So if you
want your skin to be firm and youthful,
you actually want to limit the number of
AES that your body is going to form.
Best way to do this is to limit your
amount of added sugars uh or refined
carbohydrates. Okay? So studies have
shown that people who actually eat a lot
of of added sugars and and refined
carbs, they actually have more damaged
looking skin, premature wrinkles, loss
of skin elasticity, sagging skin. But
here's the good news. The same study
found that if you reduce the amount of
added sugars and reduce the amount of
refined carbs, you can actually slow
this process down. So if you want to
slow down aging, this is not anti-aging.
We all age, all right? This is actually
aging more gracefully, naturally, and
more slowly. Okay? You want to keep your
skin looking healthy, more youthful,
less aged. Cut down or cut out on your
added sugars, and be very careful about
your carbs. All right. So, what's the
practical tip? Listen, there's a lot of
foods that actually have added sugars.
All right? Uh uh pretty much anything
you get that's sweet, that's
prepackaged, ultrarocessed, is going to
have a lot of added sugar, but the
hidden naturally added sugars are
sometimes in fruit juices. You think
that fruit juice is good for you? As I
said, always, please, if you're going to
buy something, pick up the bottle and
look at the ingredient label and see
what's inside it. If you see sugar right
up front, that's added sugar. You don't
want it. And by the way, if you're going
to buy a beverage, buy it in glass. This
is a little side tip. Um, so many
beverages like drinks and fruit juices
and things and water even are packaged
in plastic bottles. And it's now been
studied that these plastic containers
actually shed microplastics right into
your uh uh circulation. You want to
avoid that. All right. Um uh if you got
a sweet tooth, ditch the candy, snack on
some berries. Uh those are actually
going to be really really good for you.
All right. So, one of the things that I
want to actually just emphasize is that
we've been talking about the foods that
can actually help you age more slowly
and age more gracefully. Uh, and uh, I'm
hoping that this is something that
you're going to be able to see. It's
actually very, very reasonable to do.
Super easy to actually uh, incorporate
into your everyday life. Cut down or cut
out added sugars. Uh, have some healthy
uh, fats like extra virgin olive oil or
omega-3s. Eat colorful foods. These are,
you know, pretty much the same things
that you already know uh uh about health
overall. I actually bring it right home
to you when it comes to healthy aging.
All right? So, look, want to just wrap
this up by telling you a couple of
things. Number one, we all age every
single day. Every day we're alive, we're
aging. All right? Uh and it's not until
we eat reach the second half of our life
that we really start to see and feel
those effects of aging. And the foods
that we eat can actually counter the
speed at which we we age. and know and
therefore how we feel and how we look.
All right? So if you want to live long
and live well and look good at the same
time, what you want to be able to do is
to add life to your ears and not just
years to your life. This isn't only
about longevity. It's about thriving.
It's about looking good, feeling good,
having a sharp brain, as I mentioned to
you. So nourish your body as you age
with intention. And remember that the
choices that you are making today lay
the foundation to how well you're going
to look and feel and think in the years
ahead. If you like this video, uh please
subscribe. If you know somebody who
would benefit from what you just heard,
please share the video with them. And
with that, I can't wait to share with
you the next video. So, I will see you
in that next video. Dr. Lee out. Hey, if
you like that video, then you're going
to love this one. Check it out.