Every human being aims for a healthy and long life. And for this, you eat balanced, exercise and try to avoid stress. Research has shown that there is one nutrient that is ideal for life longevity. Which is this nutrient that can prolong life and make it healthy?
Life longevity and food
Both the quantity and quality of life matters. All of us desire a long life that also is healthy. We aim to achieve it and for this we try to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This includes regular exercise, healthy and balanced food and healthy mind. We try to avoid stress or try to overcome it or cope with it.
Food is vital for a long life. And the one nutrient that is the most important is the antioxidant in food. Various studies have shown with mixed outcomes that antioxidants play a greater role in ensuring a healthy and long life. These phytochemicals reduce the risk of death. European Journal of Nutrition published an article that showed that risk of death from respiratory, cardiovascular and all causes reduce with increased intake of antioxidants.
Antioxidants and long life
All types of berries prolong healthy life (Source: Health)How do antioxidants affect the life longevity? How do they improve a person’s life span? In our body, various factors produce free radicals. In turn, these lead to oxidative stress that is harmful for the body. Urban lifestyle causes more of this and the accompanying damage. Moreover, smoking cigarettes and tobacco, and having fried foods can cause an elevation in the production of free radicals.
These free radicals are linked to chronic diseases of old age such as atherosclerosis, heart ailments, type 2 diabetes mellitus, kidney problems, Alzheimer’s disease, and even cancer. There is an increased risk of premature deaths with them.
It is the antioxidants in foods that mop up the free radicals from the body and reduce them to a level that cause less damage. Hence foods rich in antioxidants are good for body.
Though these natural antioxidants are good and produce desirable effects, the same has not been seen with antioxidant supplements.
Foods and antioxidants
Foods rich in antioxidants (Source: Healthify me)Certain foods abound in antioxidants and should be incorporated in diet for health reasons. All the colorful vegetables and fruits are loaded with antioxidants. The plant based foods contain them the most. These include:
Berries
All types of berries are rich in antioxidants. Whether strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, they all contain large amounts of antioxidants in them. These fight the oxidative stress and lower risk of diseases.
Dark chocolate
Taste and health. Dark chocolate has both. It has large amounts of the phenolic goodness and prevents many chronic diseases.
Coffee, tea
Both of these hot beverages have abundance of antioxidants and enrich the body with nutrients.
Pistachios
Pistachios (Source: Health line)Have protein and healthy fats. They have all 9 essential amino acids and form a complete protein. Their antioxidant power is enormous.
Small red beans
Full of antioxidants, they are beneficial for health.
Citrus foods
Read more:Satsuma: seedless sweet citrus fruit, nutritive value and health benefits!
These have high levels of flavonoids, carotenoids, and vitamin C.
Add these to your diet and enjoy a long and healthy life.