Can Smoothies Help Slow the Aging Process? October 18 2013
The right nutrients or supplements in the correct quantities can go a long way toward helping you maintain a youthful appearance. Although many people often quip that age is just a number, there is a growing awareness of the positive steps that can be taken to stave off some of the affect aging has on our bodies. Smoothies that help you maintain a weight that is right for your build and height while increasing your daily quota of raw fruits and vegetables can protect your health as you age.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
The biggest factors involved in maintaining a healthy weight are diet and exercise. If you are dieting to get down to your ideal weight, there will be some dietary changes you will want to make to keep the weight under control.
Look for low-calorie smoothie recipes and stock up on your favorite ingredients. When we run out of smoothie components, there is more of a tendency to reach for a less-healthy alternative to fill the hunger gap.
Find moderate, weight-bearing exercises that you enjoy. The only way to ensure that you get enough exercise is to make it an experience you look forward to instead of dreading. Then arrange your daily routine so that you can comfortably add at least 30 minutes of exercise.
Latest Advice: Nine Servings of Fruit and Veggies a Day
Today’s governmental guidelines in the US emphasize fruit and vegetables more than protein from meat. In fact, the latest advice is that an individual needs four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables each day. If you try to meet these guidelines strictly through meals, you may find it difficult to consume that much unless you are on a vegetarian or vegan diet.
The alternative is to add two or three low-calorie smoothies to your daily diet can take care of the majority of these requirements. Then you can eat regular meals as planned, with an eye toward limiting the servings of beef and other meats.
What is Reversterol and How Can it Help?
Reversterol is an ingredient found originally in grape skins that has demonstrated ability in clinical trials to improve skin elasticity, prevent cell degradation, and may promote youth. Much reversterol is found in red wine, and with the popularity of this ingredient, supplements emerged. However, the supplements are not incorporated well into the body, so they do not provide the same benefits we might see from moderate red wine consumption. While individuals who are not drinking red wine are encouraged by doctors to try eating grapes or drinking red or purple grape juice, neither of these options are confirmed as being as affective as red wine. Still, other options not officially explored are other fruits and foods that naturally contain this substance. Peanuts, blueberries and cranberries contain reversterol. However, no studies documenting the effectiveness of reversterol in these foods could be located.
If you want to try obtaining reverterol from foods not yet tested for their anti-aging properties, concentrate on smoothies that include these ingredients. No smoothie will be as affective as drinking red wine in moderation -- 10oz a day for men and 5 oz a day for women, based on weight averages -- but if you are on medication that prohibits alcohol consumption, this might be something to try. Remember, there are no guarantees that this will work, even if a Google search would lead you to believe reversterol is some miracle drug. We don’t know enough about its properties to understand how it promotes benefits.
Warnings aside, you can focus on grape, cranberries, and blueberry smoothies that will help maximize your non-alcoholic reversterol intake.
Cran-Grape
Grape Juice Cranberry Juice Ice Plain Yogurt Honey ½ cup seedless grapes---with skins
CranBlueBerry
100% Cran-Blueberry Juice Vanilla Yogurt ½ cup frozen blueberries 1 banana
Apple Grape:
100% Grape Juice Vanilla Yogurt ½ grapes ¼ cup diced apple 1 banana
Grape BlueBerry
100% Grape-Blueberry juice 1 banana ½ cup seedless grapes--with skin ½ cup blueberry ice non-fat milk
Grapefruit
8oz Grape Juice ½ a grape fruit ½ cup grapes 1 tablespoon honey ½ cup blueberries (frozen) ¼ cup yogurt 8oz nonfat milk
Berry Me Up:
¼ cup frozen strawberries ¼ cup frozen blue
If you maintain a healthy weight and increase the raw fruits and vegetables in your diet, you will have a good start toward keeping your body healthy into retirement years. If you choose to add reversterol to your smoothies, grapes and berries are the best sources. While smoothies cannot directly slow the aging process, the ingredients you choose and the lifestyle decisions you make will help you to age in a healthy way.