With the right food, the right exercise program, and the right habits, a person can delay the process of aging. Everyone grows old. This is inevitable. But some remain in good health until much later in life than others. While there are thousands of things that might have a positive effect on one’s health, some health habits are more effective than others. With these five particularly beneficial health habits, one can remain energetic and free of chronic disease until much later in life than the average person.
Video Overview
Avoid sugar
The single best way to avoid gaining weight is to avoid sugar, and sugar affects the aging of the skin as well. As far as weight gain goes, sugar allows a person to take in a vast number of calories without satisfying their hunger. When the sugar one eats interacts with the body’s amino acids, it produces “Advanced Glycation End Products” – AGEs for short. These AGEs are proven to cause diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Sugar is one-sidedly bad for you and is something to avoid.
Eat a diet high in antioxidants
Foods high in antioxidants can prevent skin damage and slow the onset of health problems. An antioxidant is a compound that protects the body from harmful substances known as free radicals. While smoking and other unhealthy habits can expose the body to more free radicals, free radicals are unavoidable. Antioxidants include vitamins A, C, and E. Less well-known substances such as beta-carotene also have antioxidant effects. One can eat a diet reasonably high in antioxidants merely by eating vegetables and berries. If one wants to eat a diet truly high in antioxidants, they should eat specific vegetables such as kale, artichokes, and red cabbage.
Do strength exercises
Physical strength tends to max out in a person’s late twenties and decrease from there. However, one can still increase their strength at thirty, forty, fifty, or older. Older people that still have a reasonable amount of strength are often much healthier and happier than others. A middle-aged person can realistically be stronger than most young people, and an older person can realistically be stronger than most middle-aged people. The trick is to avoid exercises that are designed mostly to burn calories. A long but relatively low-intensity treadmill session may burn an impressive number of calories, but it is not enough to prevent age-related muscle loss. Weight training is much better for maintaining strength later in life. Strength exercises are excellent for all ages and both sexes. With proper precautions, they can be done safely, even past middle age.
Consider intermittent fasting
One thing that physicians have considered healthy for thousands of years and is still considered healthy today is fasting. Fasting cleans the body by giving it a chance to get rid of dead cells. While a young person’s body can get rid of dead cells quickly, this becomes more difficult later in life. Short but frequent fasts help an older person’s body clean itself out as well as it could earlier in life. Frequently not eating for 16 or 24 hours may sound difficult, but it does not remain much of a challenge in the long run. A person who makes a habit out of intermittent fasting usually stops experiencing much hunger rather quickly. Intermittent fasting can prevent and treat diabetes, obesity, and cognitive decline. Fasting is also associated with the body’s natural production of antioxidants.
Practice high-intensity interval training
While briskly walking on a treadmill for a long time is much better than getting no exercise, it is not enough to delay aging as much as one should. A more intense and more effective form of anti-aging exercise is high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT involves alternating back and forth between sprinting and walking, instead of jogging at a steady pace. After sprinting or cycling for only thirty seconds or so, one should reduce their speed to a walk for a short while, followed by another interval of running as fast as they can. HIIT is ideal for heart health, better than either strength training or less intense exercise. HIIT can easily seem to be too severe – even a young person can be left winded after a short while. However, HIIT does not have to be done for very long or to be done often. Even short and infrequent sessions are enough to improve heart health significantly. Only tens of minutes a week is enough to matter, so do not feel like you do not have enough time to exercise. Like strength training, this can usually be done safely later in life.
According to Jane Byrne of FirstCare Dublin, it is important to remember that it is not too late to improve your health. Reaching a high level of health and fitness after one has been out of shape for a long time can be achieved. Maintaining and improving one’s health later in life does not have to be a difficult task one suffers through just for the sake of the health benefits. Instead, improving one’s health is likely to make one feel better in the long run.
