Originally published February 9 2005
Healthy foods -- not cosmetics -- are best for keeping a youthful look, experts say
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Health experts say a lot of the $44.6 billion Americans spent on anti-aging cosmetic products last year could have been better spent on food. Antioxidants found in such foods as cinnamon, cloves, blueberries and artichokes can do as much as any cream -- or even Botox -- to prevent the physical signs of aging, nutrition experts say. But, alas, analysts expect the market for cosmetics to grow to $72 billion by 2009.
- Most people don't realize that eating foods that combat the molecular mechanism behind aging is probably more effective than even the most expensive lotions and supplements.
- Expenditures included $37.6 billion spent on drugs and supplements targeted at specific diseases of aging, $7.7 billion spent on appearance products and services and nearly $280 million spent on anti-aging products that use advanced technologies such as hair regrowth.
- Antioxidants, special substances that are found in foods ranging from cinnamon and cloves to blueberries and artichokes, have the ability to scavenge free radicals, compounds whose unstable chemical nature accelerates the effect of aging on our cells.
- An integral part of turning calories into energy, for example, is free radical production (that explains why overeating and the overproduction of free radicals go hand-in-hand).
- It's when free radicals don't do what they are supposed to do (and the more calories you consume, the more likely that is to happen) that problems arise.
- Wandering free radicals snatch electrons from neighboring cholesterol particles, proteins or DNA, beginning a chain reaction that results in wounds to nearby tissue and genetic mutations.
- Until these excess free radicals are quenched by antioxidant molecules, cellular damage accumulates, contributing to a whole slew of degenerative diseases like atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's and cancer.
- Dipping your steamed artichoke in a little butter isn't going to kill you, nor will having a steak on the side.
- found that, among 1,300 elderly Massachusetts residents, cardiovascular risks were lower for those in the highest quartile for consumption of antioxidant-containing fruits and vegetables.
- For those people who can get an earlier start, the protective impacts will be even greater.
- There is abundant evidence that high intake of antioxidant-packed fruits and vegetables helps protect against degeneration in later life.
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