It's an understood fact that maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help us feel energised, but it has also been found that some foods help slow down the ageing process. According to diet guru, Doctor Michael Moseley, the key to a long and happy life is protecting your gut health.
He went on to explain that having a healthy lifestyle is more important than genetics when it comes to how a person ages, and that by adding certain foods into your diet, it can help make a real difference in slowing down the ageing process reports The Daily Mirror.
The doctor, who has long been known for his diet advice, recently finished filming a series exploring the ageing process and how food plays a vital part in this. During the documentary he spoke to leading scientists across the world, who are researching ways to slow, or even reverse, the process of ageing.
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During his travels Dr Mosley came to the surprising conclusion that genetics play a small part in how we age, and lifestyle is more important. He 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. Regarding the findings, Dr Mosley stated "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." A healthy microbiome can significantly boost your immune system, and has also 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.
He added that foods packed with sugar tend to have the opposite impact on ageing and your gut health.
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