5 Habits Making You Age Faster
See If You’re Doing Any Of These
Are you unwittingly speeding up your aging process?
Many of us lead busy lives. So busy that sometimes we unintentionally develop bad habits that negatively affect our bodies.
Yes, aging is a natural part of life, but there might be things you’re doing which are making you look older than you really are.
Eat This, Not That gives us 10 of these habits. Are you doing any of these?
1. You love meat
If your carnivore attitude is crowding veggies from making it to your plate, you may be negatively affecting your lifespan. The link between increased meat consumption and early death has been noted in multiple studies, including a recent analysis of 1.5 million people in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. On the other hand, those who eat the most fruit and veggies have a 15 percent lower risk of mortality than those who eat the least amount, according to Vanderbilt researchers.
2. You sit a lot
Simply getting up to walk around for two minutes every half hour has been linked to improved glucose and insulin responses in overweight participants, according to studies in Diabetes Care and BMJ. Walk to grab a glass of water, and opt for the stairs. It also helps to keep you from regaining weight.
3. You’re driven by your sweet tooth
Whether you’re always sipping a soda, you can’t separate yourself from sugary cereals, or you constantly crave sugary ‘nutrition’ bars, you’re aging yourself in more ways than one. For starters, when we eat foods that are high in sugar, we overwhelm our bodies with sugar molecules. As a result, these excess molecules can cause important proteins, like collagen and elastin (the proteins that keep skin looking firm and young) to haphazardly glom together. The result? Increased levels of inflammation markers—which have been implicated in causing countless age-related diseases—and the breakdown of proteins that prevent our skin from sagging.
4. You don’t bother with exercise
You don’t even need a gym to work out. Experts find that just 30 minutes of moderate walking can improve health, lower bad cholesterol, protect your heart, improve insulin sensitivity, and strengthen bones. As we age, an injury can become increasingly life-threatening, so on top of ensuring you’re consuming enough vitamin D and calcium, ensure you’re getting in at least three days of 30-minute brisk walking.
5. You don’t go green
We’ll give it to you straight: Green tea melts belly flab. Researchers attribute the tea’s fat-burning properties to catechins like EGCG, a group of antioxidative compounds that blast adipose tissue by revving the metabolism, increasing the release of fat from adipose cells, and speeding up the liver’s fat-burning capacity.”
