You know that the foods you eat affect everything from your waistline to your mood. New research shows how your diet may also play a role in how well you age . Several studies have explored the connection between popular diets and aging: The Mediterranean diet has been shown to slow the progression of aging and foods rich in antioxidants and nutrients like vitamin E and choline—hello nuts, eggs and fish— appear to have a protective effect on cognitive health.
But what about foods that have the opposite effect? “There’s a lot of sugar, fat and salt, preservatives...
and other chemical compounds [in a typical American diet],” says Raelene Brooks, PhD, RN, dietician and dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Phoenix. “Those types of foods lead to an inflammatory response that can affect our DNA in a negative way, which can lead to aging.” These six foods could make you age faster: 1.
Coffee Ned a java jolt to get going in the mornings ? You might want to limit it to a couple of cups. Coffee drinkers who consumed more than six cups of coffee per day tended to have smaller brain volume and a 53% higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia compared to coffee drinkers who filled their cups less often. Some research even found that each 100 mg of caffeine (about the equivalent of one cup of coffee) was linked to 2.
4 years of accelerated aging. But you might not need to abandon your morning cup of Joe altogether. “There are many more studies suggesting ben.