14 Years Younger with Eating the RealAge Way

If you follow these practices, your food choices can make your RealAge fourteen years younger:

1. Make every calorie you eat delicious and nutrient-rich. Don’t eat foods that taste just “okay.” If they’re not special, don’t let them touch your lips. You deserve to treat yourself well.

2. Eat foods that aren’t processed. If you rarely eat packaged goods or prepared foods, you’ll usually know what’s in your food.

3. Eat breakfast—preferably, a whole grain and a little healthy fat. You’ll start the day off with energy, avoid hunger pangs that lead to unwise food choices, and have more stable blood sugar levels. Try real peanut butter on toasted rye or on a chewy whole wheat bagel, or a Kashi cereal.

4. Eat some healthy fat first at every meal. The ideal amount represents approximately 60–75 calories: 1⁄2 tablespoon of olive oil or canola oil, 6 walnuts, 12 almonds, 20 peanuts, or 1⁄2 ounce of cocoa-based chocolate or avocado.

5. Read the labels for serving size. Determine exactly how many servings you will be eating, and how many grams of saturated and trans fat that amount contains. Avoid products that put you over your daily limit of 20 grams, or that have more than 6 grams in a serving you’ll eat.

6. Read the labels for whole-grain content. Look at the first six items in the label. The first that involves grains should say “whole wheat,” “oats,” “oats, unprocessed,” “brown rice,” “corn,” etc. Choose products that have more whole-grain content than processed-grain content.

7. Tally your saturated and trans fat consumption every day. Try to keep it to less than 20 grams a day. No matter what the special interest lobbyists say, eating more than 20 grams a day of saturated and trans fat (we call these two together the “Aging Fats”; see earlier in this chapter) correlates with the development of arterial aging (heart disease, stroke, memory loss, impotence, decay in orgasm quality, wrinkling of the skin) and cancer (the evidence is strongest for increases in saturated and trans fats being associated with the development of breast and prostate cancers). And aging fats sap your energy acutely when they prevent your arteries from dilating as your muscles need more oxygen. The risk of arterial isease and cancer seems to increase substantially as your intake of saturated and trans fats combined exceeds 20 grams a day.

8. Limit red meat consumption to 4 ounces a week. This includes “the other white meat.” Use red meat as a side dish or condiment, not a main course.

9. Read the label when you buy baked goods. Choose those with whole grains, and no aging trans or saturated fats, and great texture. Baked goods tend to make you older because they contain tons of trans fats and processed flour. One Cinnabon, I’m told, contains 75 grams of aging fat—not a four-pack, but just one Cinnabon; a slice of whole-grain cinnamon-flavored bread made by our local Montana Bread Company or by P and C contains no aging or other fat and no processed flour, tastes great, and if you want to make it even healthier, add some peanut butter or pure avocado spread.

10. Substitute healthier foods. Assess your foods and meals in terms of how they could be made healthier by additions, subtractions, or substitutions. A few substitutions can make a big difference in your rate of aging. They also make food taste great! Try substituting olive oil for butter or margarine on bread, or prune purée or drained applesauce for 1 to 3 tablespoons of butter in smaller recipes; fruit for cookies; real (dark) chocolate for milk chocolate; nuts for chips; and cooked garlic salsa or marinara sauce for a cream sauce.

11. Make eating, and the place you eat, special. Only eat sitting down at one of your special places. (Usually, designate no more than three places as “special”—one at home and perhaps two at work). Only eat food on plates and on 9-inch plates, not giant ones. My most successful patients (and their families) have a special place in their home that is the only place for eating. Not eating anyplace else was and is their rule—not the TV room, not standing up, not in the car, not out of the refrigerator.

12. Take a 30-minute walk every day with a friend. I call this a RealAge double dip. Not only do you get the anti-aging benefit that physical activity and exercise give you, but also you build the strong social support networks that can help you prevent needless aging through times of stress.

13. Plan menus and learn to cook. Cooking can be a true pleasure; in addition, you will know what’s in your food, and you will also have the fun of learning how to use herbs and spices to make food taste fabulous.

14. Be a smart shopper. If you don’t buy food that’s bad for you, you won’t eat food that’s bad for you.

15. Eat nonfried fish three times a week. Any fish, not just fatty fish, makes you younger.

16. Eat 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week. Try marinara sauce, salsa, and other varieties. The carotenoid found in tomatoes, watermelon, guava, and pink grapefruit—lycopene—when eaten with a little oil, provides an immune-strengthening antioxidant that seems to inhibit growth of prostate, breast cancers, and maybe other cancers, and may make your arteries younger.

17. Add variety to your diet and the way you cook vegetables. Why is variety in your diet so important? Many people don’t eat a balanced diet. Forty percent of Americans don’t eat fruit daily, and 30 percent don’t consume any dairy or soy products regularly. On average, Americans get less than half of the 25 to 30 grams of fiber they need a day. Eating a diverse diet that is low in calories and high in nutrients decreases aging from arterial and immune dysfunction and makes your RealAge as much as four years younger. If you eat from all five food groups daily, you can be as much as five years younger than if you ate from only two. (The five groups are whole-grain breads and cereals; fruits; vegetables; dairy and dairy- ubstitute products; and meats, nuts, legumes, and other proteins). Adding variety to the way you cook is what you’ll learn. And variety will make all vegetables taste better, great even. It makes more fun to try new ways of cooking—and that makes you younger.

18. Be the CEO every time you eat out—why should you pay for something that ages you? Learn to ask questions of the wait-staff when you eat out. Then learn to ask for healthy, great tasting choices—“Would you ask the chef to substitute the marinara sauce for the Alfredo sauce?”

19. Keep your portions energy-giving, not energy-sapping. The usual restaurant entrée is not an acceptable meal size. Use your fist or a pack of cards as a measure of a serving.

20. Stop eating as soon as you start to feel full. Because your stomach is roughly the size of your fist, eating meals larger than your fist can stretch your stomach beyond what’s comfortable or healthy. Eat a little healthy fat first. Then pause before the rest of the meal. And remember: stop eating as soon as you first sense you might be getting full—before the full feeling hits.

21. Don’t eat absentmindedly. All too often, eating is an unconscious act. We lift the fork, swallow absentmindedly, and lift the fork again. Sometimes we overeat because we just aren’t paying attention. We’re bored, nervous, or busy. Often, we’re not even hungry. Instead, eat mindfully. Be actively conscious of what you’re eating and why. Use all of your senses to enjoy the color, texture, smell, and flavor of your food. Not only will you enjoy your food more, but you’ll also slow down your rate of consumption.

22. Do resistance exercises for 10 minutes every other day. You replace a pound of your muscle with a pound of fat about every five years after age 35 if you do not do resistance exercises. And a pound of muscle uses about 150 calories a day, compared to 3 calories a day for a pound of fat. Whether you use free weights, resistance bands, or machines, it takes just 10 minutes three times a week to maintain muscle mass. (You can go to www.realage.com/realagecafé/myfitnessplan to see these resistance exercises and design a plan for yourself, but I recommend consultation with a trainer for at least the first three times you do resistance exercises and then at least once every three months thereafter.)

23. Be a savvy snacker. Think nutrient rich and calorie lean. Try a few nuts and a piece of whole fruit. Try not to snack at night.

24. Avoid simple carbohydrates and simple sugars. Remember that carbohydrates were meant to be complex. Simple sugars in food are absorbed quickly in the intestine and increase the amount of sugar in the blood for at least one to two hours. A high concentration of sugar in the blood eradicates the natural protective control your body has over the usual, everyday variations in blood pressure. High blood-sugar levels also increase triglyceride levels in the blood. What about honey and natural sugars? Unfortunately, these are not healthy substitutes for white sugar. So avoid foods that are laden with carbohydrates from brown sugar, corn sweetener, dextrose, fructose (high fructose corn sweetener), glucose, corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, syrup, and table sugar.

25. Drink alcohol in moderation. Women benefit from one drink a day; men, from one or two. Avoid making this choice if you or your family are at risk of alcohol or drug abuse.

26. Drink lots of water. Drink a glass of water between every glass of wine or other alcoholic drink you have. Also, at food events, carry a glass of water in one hand.

This Tip was published in 'Cooking The RealAge Way - p12'