Remember the GlycoSENS post on negligible senescence? Just like a raw chicken gets crispy after spending 2 hours in the oven, so will our bodies “bake from within” with each decade. Our proteins get cross-linked with sugars and fats, so their function is altered, all this with huge consequences on our sight, hearing, brain, blood vessels, nerves and immune system, to name just a few.
People whose fasting blood sugar is constantly high – diabetics – develop these impairments much earlier in life. In gerontology, diabetes is considered a model of accelerated aging – which leads me to the simplest advice to slow down aging: skip the sugar!
Lowering the amount of sugars and fats we eat is a healthy option, but we can’t skip them altogether. Our brain needs glucose – preferably from vegetables and fruits. Our cell membranes need a decent amount of fat to survive. We need fat for maintaining the quality of our white matter in the brain and we need it to manufacture hormones. Does that mean cross-linking is inevitable? Is there any other way to slow it down?
It seems we do have some more choice. Researchers launched the hypothesis that dietary advanced glycation end products (dAGEs) may accelerate our physiological protein cross-linking and they tested several food ingredients and several ways of cooking in order to make this list of foods with their specific content of dAGEs.
Here are the main practical ideas to remember from the study :
1. Animal products contain more dietary AGEs compared to plant ones, especially meat (no surprise here, meat is full of proteins).
2. Marinating meat in acidic solutions – such as vinegar or lemon juice – before cooking it decreases the level of dietary AGEs once cooked.
3. High temperature and low moisture types of cooking accelerate the formation of dietary AGEs. Avoid grilling and frying.
Dietary AGEs contributing to the rate of aging is a hypothesis for the moment. At the same time, I see diabetic obese patients almost every day and their cooking skills are usually limited to grilling and buying sweets from the supermarket. Which takes me to the next question: would you change your diet after one such study?
Anca Ioviţă is the author of Eat Less Live Longer: Your Practical Guide to Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition ,The Aging Gap Between Species and What Is Your Legacy? 101Ways on Getting Started to Create and Build One available on Amazon and several other places. If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to sign up to receive updates on longevity news and novel book projects!
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