Of course, you can’t stop aging. That’s because your body is continually
aged through oxidation or wear and tear or other internal processes. But you
can control and slow a large portion of your aging process. From a purely
scientific perspective, we don’t really know everything that causes aging, but
we do know an awful lot. So we can give you a month-by-month priority list.
While we want to show you how all of these systems work and what you
can do to keep yourself young, we’ll give you a few highlights. The important
concept to remember is that the RealAge choices you make will help you slow
your aging processes. How much they do so is the RealAge effect. It’s almost
like longevity currency.
Aging fact 2: Genes are not an excuse
We live in a society where making excuses is as easy as making a sandwich. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to our health. The
reason we’re frazzled with stress? Blame the boss. The reason we’re sick?
Blame the sniffling kids. The reason our societal waistbands are stretching
and snapping at an alarming rate? Blame auntie’s Alfredo sauce or those
alluring arches.
The top health excuse, however, revolves around the biggest four-letter
word of them all: gene. Blame your genes.
The truth is that we blame our genes for just about everything—for baldness, for fatness, for sickness, for illness and for every other health-related
problem we can think of. In our minds, that means Mom, Pop and the rest of
the family tree are on the hook for the ultimate health question of them all:
How long—and how well—will we live?
But that’s exactly where most of us have it wrong. While we’re certainly
born with genes that help determine everything from our height to our risk
for heart disease, we’re making a monumental mistake by assuming that we
can’t influence our genes—especially when it comes to aging. Truth is, much
of aging is actually in our control; we have the power to nudge our biological
systems so that even our unwanted genes can work in our favor—as long as
we know what to do and why we’re doing it.
Aging fact 3: You can chip away
A lot of people believe that changing one’s body completely requires a
complete overhaul. But the truth is that you can take baby steps. Here are the
EXACTLY WHAT
ARE FLAVONOIDS?
FLAVONOIDS ARE VITAMIN-like substances—
they work like vitamins, but aren’t essential for
life—that have been shown to decrease the
rate of arterial and immune aging. They seem
to allow your memory bank to maintain the
memory of old foes longer and more intensely.
If you eat a diet rich with flavonoids—about
31 grams of them a day—you’ll have a signifi-
cant effect on your RealAge [yes, that’s how to
spellit],m akingyouupto3.2yearsyounger.
Here’s ho w to get there:
Oats ( 3 m illigrams per cup)
Onions ( 4 milligrams for one small) milligrams for one small)
Broccoli ( 4. 2 milligrams per cup)
Tomatoe s ( 2. 6 milligrams
for one s mall)
Apples ( 4. 2 milligrams per cup)
Cranberr ies ( 8 milligrams for
one 8-ou nce cup)
Strawber ries ( 4. 2 milligrams
per cup)
Cranberr y juice ( 11. 2 milligrams
per 8-ou nce glass)
Tomato ju ice or tea ( 7. 2 milligrams
per 8-ou nce cup of tomato
juice or b rewed non-herbal tea)
Grape ju ice ( 3 milligrams
per one 5 -ounce glass)
Red wine ( 3 milligrams (
per one 5 -ounce
glass) A
Source: Fro m Y OU: The Owner”s Manual: An Insider”s
Guide to th e Body That Will Make You Healthier and
Younger b y Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz
(HarperRe source,2005).
