You are what you eat. Some foods can help you stay young, while others make you old. Consider these foods to eat, and these other foods to avoid. Remember that calories count, so keep your body weight at a healthy level. Excess bodyfat is toxic in many ways, promoting cancer, heart disease, diabetes and aging. It makes you look older, too.

You can control many of your aging processes with what you eat. Food affects your brain as well as your body. This, in turn, affects how you feel, your performance, your health, your joy. You'll do better choosing the proper foods and avoiding the wrong ones. Our bodies are being constantly rebuilt, and the food we eat is our raw material. Imagine food as fuel for your body. If you put the incorrect gas in your car, it will need repairing. Well, the same goes for our bodies.

Making a lifestyle change isn't about self-denial, or ignoring cravings. As you treat your body well, most of the interest in unhealthy indulgences will just drift away -- as though it never existed -- replaced by a life that's much better.

Eating and living properly benefits you way down at the cellular level, where free-radical damage is the most significant reason we age. Free radicals come mainly from our diets, but also from exercise and the environment. Free radicals, which are byproducts of oxygen use by the cells, take electrons from cell. This causes damage. Antioxidants, such as Vitamins C and E and beta-carotene, can provide the missing electrons, sparing damage to the cells. Neutralizing and/or reducing free radicals produces a positive effect in your health and against aging.

Free-radical damage may also be involved in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, cataracts, hypertension and many immune problems. A diet high in antioxidant foods can help protect you from these diseases that are associated with aging. In addition to antioxidants, phytonutrients – or plant nutrients – protect your body against numerous ailments. Different foods have different phytonutrients, which is why you need a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds and nuts. Fish and low-fat milk also have nutrients for your health. You can’t get the optimum mix from supplements. Some supplements may help, but you need real food.

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