Anti-Aging Nutrition Supports Cellular Health and Optimizes Longevity

Did you know that it’s possible to boost age-fighting processes within your body? To understand how to stimulate these anti-aging benefits, scientists are looking to autophagy, a naturally occurring cellular cleansing process that’s linked to a range of health benefits, including reduced inflammation, improved metabolism, enhanced energy production and weight loss.

Research has shown us that intermittent fasting and/or calorie reduction play an important role in stimulating autophagy. In addition to how and when you eat, there are specific nutritional needs and exercise strategies that can help support healthy cellular aging and extend your lifespan by optimizing the autophagy process.

What is autophagy?

Autophagy is a process that is naturally regulated by your cells, to remove dysfunctional components. The process ensures proper removal of debris and damaged tissues from cells to help them work and function smoothly.

Autophagy is a critical component to preserving mitochondrial function (in your cells) and keeping your body youthful by eliminating the accumulation of free radicals. Mitochondrial health is essential for longevity and is particularly susceptible to nutrient deficiencies and oxidative damage.

The question is, how can we safely stimulate autophagy and help maintain our mitochondrial health? According to research, intermittent fasting or calorie reduction are both proven strategies, but without proper nutrition, exercise, and expert guidance, they won’t be optimized.

Exercise for autophagy

Research suggests that exercising in the morning in a fasted state can stimulate autophagy. By exercising in this state, you use your fat stores for energy throughout the activity rather than the food you just ate. This depletes your body’s glycogen by activating AMPK, an energy sensing enzyme that acts as a master regulator of metabolism. Instead of storing fat in your body, when you eat after exercise, your body uses the nutrients for lean muscle growth (aka “protein muscle synthesis”) and restores glycogen for improved exercise performance the next day.

Interestingly, multiple studies point to exercise as a highly beneficial activity for anti-aging on both cognitive and cellular levels. One study indicated swimming can help with anti-aging by supporting autophagy and regulating mitochondria quality. An animal swim study demonstrated protection against age-related cognitive decline. And another animal study suggested running may help activate autophagy and improve brain function.

Nutrition for autophagy

Eating foods rich in healthy plant-based fats and essential nutrients is powerful for autophagy and longevity in general. The following tips will help optimize your nutritional needs, particularly when combined with a clinically guided intermittent fasting or calorie reduction strategy:

• Eat a diet rich in healthy fats. This includes avocado, avocado oil, guacamole, olives, coconuts, nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil, nut or seed butters, and fatty fish.

• Choose high fibre, non-starchy, low sugar fruits and vegetables most of the time. These will fill your body with vitamins, minerals, water, fibre, and antioxidants. These include frozen or fresh berries, and raw or cooked vegetables such as green leafy vegetables, cucumber, beans, zucchini, radish, tomato, bell peppers, eggplant, carrots, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.

• Enjoy a small portion of lean protein at each meal. This includes plain yogurt, tofu, edamame, beans, lentils, peas, fish, seafood, chicken and turkey breast, eggs, and egg whites. Limit lean red meats and pork to two times a week.

• Choose complex carbs in small portions (< 1/2 Cup) and aim to consume this near exercise to utilize them for energy. Complex carbs provide fibre and more starch/sugar by portion size. These include oats, quinoa, whole grains, corn, yams, sweet potato, beans, lentils, and other fruits.

Note: Both carbohydrates and protein can increase insulin, IGF-1 and mTOR. That’s why a diet high in either of these is not ideal for longevity.

8 powerful ingredients for longevity

Some ingredients can help to stimulate autophagy and have many health benefits. Incorporate these ingredients as beverages, sprinkle in your smoothies, in your salads, or while cooking. Including these antioxidant rich foods in your daily life will help clean out any damaged cells as well as promote new cell growth.

1. Coffee has been researched for many years and has been found to have many health benefits from chronic disease prevention to longevity. These benefits are not associated with the caffeine, but rather the phytochemicals (e.g. flavonoids, terpenes, and phytosterol), therefore, decaffeinated coffee has the same benefit.

2. The compound EGCG found in green tea induces autophagy.

3. Bergamot oil is added to the black tea leaf to give it the beautiful rich flavor. Bergamot is a polyphenol (antioxidant properties) that can heal the cell and induce the autophagy process.

4. Sulforaphane is an antioxidant found in Brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale, and cauliflower. This particular compound has been found to induce protective autophagy to cancer cells, making these vegetables natural tumor fighters.

5. Medicinal mushrooms like chaga, reishi, shitake, and lion’s mane support autophagy and may help fight cancers. These typically come in a powder form that can be added to coffee, smoothies, or elixirs.

6. Curcumin is the active compound in turmeric. It induces autophagy by activating AMPK. Piperine is the active compound in black pepper. It induces autophagy and it boosts bioavailability of curcumin, which makes it a powerful combination.

7. 6-Shogaol is the active compound found in ginger. It induces autophagy by inhibiting the AKT/mTOR pathway in human non-small cell lung cancer.

8. Polyphenols and flavonoids are found in foods like cinnamon, rosemary, kale, spinach, berries, pomegranate, red grapes, and beets. The bright color of these foods contains the antioxidant effect that helps to stimulate autophagy and has longevity-boosting effects because it turns on the Sirt1 DNA gene associated with longevity. This gene is also turned on when fasting.

To personalize your approach to optimizing autophagy or find other ways to increase your longevity, please speak to the team at Harrison Healthcare. Our collaborative team approach combines our dietary expertise with that of your physician, exercise physiologist, and other team members to help you live better, longer.