Could eating more plant foods help you grow old gracefully?
As our population ages, there is more focus on how to age well and reduce risk of age-related diseases and conditions. We all know that an active lifestyle, a decent diet and looking after our health now can have a positive impact on our future health, but a recent study has highlighted a few ingredients that you may want to add to your shopping list of foods to help support healthy ageing.
A recent, large scale study found that people with a higher intake of plant nutrients called flavonoids had a 15% lower risk of frailty, a 12% reduced risk of impaired physical function and a 12% lower risk of poor mental health. The people in the study were mostly female and all aged 60 or over.
Flavonoids are found in a wide variety of plant foods, but this study looked at how often participants were consuming particular flavonoid-rich foods that included tea, apples, oranges, grapefruit, blueberries, strawberries and red wine.
Flavonoids seem to have lots of benefits for our health, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and their association with a healthy balance of good bacteria in our gut microbiome.
Flavonoids seem to have lots of benefits for our health, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and their association with a healthy balance of good bacteria in our gut microbiome.
So if you are looking for some tasty ways to add more of these protective nutrients to your diet, here are some ideas:
Eat some dark chocolate every day. The more cocoa in your chocolate, the better, so go as dark as you dare, and aim for at least 70% cocoa solids. A little bit of chocolate every day is good for you!
Use fresh or frozen berries. Berries are full of flavonoids and are a tasty way to add some extra to your diet. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, blackberries – any you like and the more variety, the better. Aim for an 80g portion every day (or a portion about the same size as your fist).
Eat the skins too. Peeling fruit and veg reduces the fibre intake, but in many plant foods, the highest concentration of flavonoids is in the skin.
Use citrus zest in cooking. It’s not just the flesh of citrus fruit that has benefits – the zest is packed with flavonoids too. Lime zest in curries, lemon zest with fish or in sauces – all good. If possible, choose unwaxed citrus fruits.
Eat a rainbow! The more colour you can get into your diet, the better. Choose different foods from each colour group and work on getting as much variety into your diet as possible:
Red e.g. tomatoes, red peppers, apples
Orange e.g. sweet potato, cantaloupe melon, carrots
Yellow e.g. lemons, yellow peppers, sweetcorn
Green e.g. broccoli, rocket, watercress
Blue/purple e.g. berries, red onion, red cabbage
Green tea, or black tea (without milk) is a really good source of flavonoids.
Eat more nuts and seeds. A good variety of nuts and seeds will top up your flavonoid intake. Pecans, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts – any you like, but mx I up for variety.
Cook with herbs and spices like cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, oregano, rosemary. Not only good for flavour, but good for your health too.
Bulk out with beans and lentils and choose different types – variety is key. Red lentils, puy or green lentils, red kidney beans, aduki, butter beans, edamame – full of fibre and flavonoids.
Choose different types of wholegrains. Oats, quinoa, wheat, rye, buckwheat, brown rice, wild rice or red rice.
One of the best ways to optimise your intake of flavonoids is to work on getting as much variety of plant foods into your diet as you can. The next time you are doing your supermarket shop, take a look at some different options – maybe choose a vegetable you’ve not eaten for ages, or try a new wholegrain for a change.