We all understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to help us feel more energised, but did you know there are some foods that can help significantly slow down the ageing process?
Diet guru doctor Michael Moseley says the key to leading a long and happy life is protecting your gut health, and suggests that embarking on a healthy lifestyle is far more important than genetics when it comes to how we age.
Dr Mosley - who has long been famed for his diet advice - explained that adding certain foods to your diet can make a real difference in slowing down - or even reversing - the ageing process.
The advice comes after Dr Mosley finished filming a series exploring the process of ageing and how food plays a vital part, the Coventry Telegraph reports.
While making the new documentary, the weight loss guru spoke to the world's leading scientists who are researching ways to slow, or even reverse, the process of ageing.
On his travels, Dr Mosley came to the surprising conclusion that genetics play a relatively small part in how we age. Instead, lifestyle is far more important. The doctor also found that eating for your gut health, microbiome, is integral to ageing well and surviving well beyond the average lifespan.
Dr Mosley wrote in the Daily Mail: "We know that what, and how much, you eat play key roles in whether you stay healthy or not — but what seems to be equally important is the impact this food has on your gut microbiome, the mix of bacteria, viruses and fungi, which live in your intestines."
In a study published in the journal Nature Aging earlier this month, scientists at Guangxi Academy of Sciences in China compared the microbiomes of 1,575 people, ranging in age from 20 to over 100.
Explaining the findings, Dr Mosley said: "They found that the healthy centenarians (those least troubled by age-related disease) had a very diverse mix of bugs in their guts, with particularly high levels of a bacterial species called Bacteroidetes. This bug has previously been linked to slimness, and is present in far smaller amounts in the guts of people who are overweight."
Not only can a healthy microbiome significantly boosts your immune system - but it has been shown to reduce inflammation linked to numerous cancers and heart disease.
To boost your microbiome with 'anti-ageing' foods, Dr Mosley suggests introducing a largely plant-based, fibre-rich diet, making sure you eat lots of 'different-coloured fruit and veg'.
The doctor says the best way to boost gut levels of Bacteroidetes and other 'good' bacteria is to eat fermented foods such as such as sauerkraut, kefir and kimchi daily.
Meanwhile, foods packed with sugar tend to have the opposite impact on ageing and your gut health.
Do you have a story? We want to hear it! Get in touch at grace.hoffman@reachplc.com
