Can­di­da Khan

Age­ing is a part of life and a nat­ur­al part of liv­ing. It’s a gift that many of us take for grant­ed. The ma­jor­i­ty of the time, when we don’t prac­tice healthy habits and we don’t bal­ance and nour­ish our bod­ies with in­ten­tion, our meta­bol­ic age can be old­er than our ac­tu­al age. For women, our en­er­gy, skin elas­tic­i­ty, bone strength and men­tal clar­i­ty de­pend on the right foods to nour­ish our bod­ies.

In­flam­ma­tion can build up in our bod­ies, which sup­ports ac­cel­er­at­ed age­ing, but an­ti-ox­i­dant, an­ti-in­flam­ma­to­ry foods help our bod­ies to age grace­ful­ly. Foods that sup­port healthy age­ing:

1) Va­ri­ety of lo­cal fruits and veg­eta­bles

Colour­ful fruits and veg­eta­bles are rich in an­tiox­i­dant ben­e­fits, vi­t­a­mins, and min­er­als that help to fight against ox­ida­tive stress, which is one of the lead­ing caus­es of pre-ma­ture age­ing. Lo­cal fruits and veg­eta­bles that I en­joy in­clude paw­paw, West In­di­an cher­ries, pom­mer­ac, or­anges, por­tu­gal, sweet pep­pers, and toma­toes. High-vi­t­a­min C foods are the se­cret be­cause they help with col­la­gen, which keeps the skin firm and youth­ful.

2) Hy­drat­ing foods

Our skin is made up of wa­ter. With­out wa­ter, we will age faster, and it can be­come no­tice­able. I love to get some wa­ter in the fruits and veg­eta­bles I eat dai­ly, such as wa­ter­mel­on, pineap­ple, cu­cum­ber, let­tuce, man­go and even soups!

Herbal teas are one of my favourite ways to hy­drate the body be­cause of the ben­e­fits it gives. Rich in an­tiox­i­dant prop­er­ties and can help us to age back­wards. Smooth­ies can al­so hy­drate the body, but the in­gre­di­ents mat­ter most. Af­ter con­sum­ing nu­tri­tious and de­li­cious smooth­ies, you can feel your skin glow­ing when you en­joy a cup.

3) Whole grains and fi­bre

Di­etary fi­bre sup­ports di­ges­tion and hor­mon­al bal­ance. This can reg­u­late blood sug­ar spikes and help to re­duce in­flam­ma­tion and age­ing. I usu­al­ly in­clude oats in my snacks and try com­bi­na­tion foods such as whole wheat flour with white flour. Fi­bre al­so sup­ports gut health, which is in­creas­ing­ly linked to skin clar­i­ty and im­mune func­tion.

Foods that ac­cel­er­ate age­ing and can be con­sumed in mod­er­a­tion. These in­clude:

1) ↓Ex­cess sug­ar

2) ↓Ul­tra-processed foods

3) ↓Ex­cess in­take of al­co­hol

4) ↓Fried foods

5) ↓Over-con­sump­tion of salt

Healthy age­ing is not about per­fec­tion or try­ing to stop the clock. It is about car­ing for the body with in­ten­tion and con­sis­ten­cy. Women who nour­ish them­selves with whole­some foods, con­sume less processed foods, man­age stress, and pri­ori­tise well­ness of­ten ex­pe­ri­ence greater con­fi­dence, vi­tal­i­ty, and strength through­out every stage of life.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD al­so known as Di­di, is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di’s Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy (didis­nu­tri­tion­con­sul­tan­cy.com)