When possible, you should be eating almost exclusively food that’s fresh, natural, and real—as in, the kind of thing that will go bad if it’s not refrigerated. Not food in boxes and cans, not food in sealed bags with an eerily long shelf life. It’s such a simple concept, and yet it needs to be stated, because we’re programmed to do otherwise.
“Processed” food is not just the junky stuff we associate with unhealthy eating. It’s most packaged foods, anything with a nutrition label. It’s a lot of what we ordinarily eat, and we encourage you to move away from it toward truly fresh food in its natural, messy, just picked, just fished, just churned state. Eat as close to nature, as close to the source, as you can.
Often the problem is in what we’re doing to our food rather than the food itself. You want to find the least altered, least sprayed, cleanest food, in all categories. Organic is important, especially for certain crops. See the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce (at EWG.org) for the dirtiest and cleanest fruits and vegetables, so you can make smart choices.
Local food from a farmers’ market is great because you can talk to farmers and learn about their practices and because local food is more likely to have been harvested closer to the time you buy it—it hasn’t endured lengthy trucking.
The more altered your food is—through exposure to pesticides like glyphosate, through manipulating and injecting, through refining, through extended storage—the more potentially problematic it can be to the immune system and your entire body. A lot of food in the United States has been severely messed with.
The fresher and cleaner your food, the better it is at delivering the micro- and macronutrients your body needs. It’s not just produce, like greens, vegetables, legumes, and fruit, that matters. You also want the best, cleanest possible options in other categories: raw nuts; eggs from pasture-raised chickens; meat and dairy from animals allowed to roam, fed clean grass, and raised without antibiotics.
Your diet should be super high in non-starchy vegetables and other greens, and full of variety. Different vegetables have different nutrients. If you have a routine and love to eat the same thing every morning, make sure to mix things up later in the day. Following the seasonal lead of your region is a very easy way to get a range of nutrients without having to think too much about it—as is eating a rainbow of colors. Deeply pigmented veggies are packed with nutrients.
Read labels and pay attention to ingredients, but most of the food you buy should not even have labels. Some terms that are hollow or worse when it comes to packaged foods include “diet,” “lite,” “reduced calorie,” “low-fat,” “low-salt,” “natural,” and “fat-free.” Don’t believe the hype. “Multigrain,” “no trans fats,” “made with natural flavors”—these terms too are pretty meaningless. Don’t be duped by cereals that claim to be “heart-healthy.” You know what’s really heart-healthy? Not eating cereal. “No added sugar” often means something worse—like the artificial sweetener aspartame. “Gluten-free” is hardly the only thing that matters on a food packed with sweeteners and refined carbs.
Eat mostly fresh stuff—grass-fed and grass-finished meat and wild fish, fresh organic vegetables, raw nuts and simple nut butters, legumes, and some fruits. Go for whole milk, not 2 percent; full-fat yogurt; and good organic dark chocolate that’s at least 80 percent cacao rather than processed “low-fat” cookies that are full of chemicals. Compare Skippy peanut butter to an organic brand that contains only one ingredient (peanuts!). Begin to tweak your shopping habits. We’re brand-loyal to the core, and it takes a conscious effort to rethink a pantry and fridge.
Practice for a weekend. Fresh vegetables, meat that hasn’t been treated, pasture-raised and pasture-finished eggs, an occasional piece of fruit—no refined sugar, no grains. Note how often you’re tempted to reach for a box or a bag or a can. Watching your habits for a couple of days is instructive and motivating. Of course, there will be times in life when you can’t necessarily shop fresh; but let those be the exception, not the rule.
Most of us are carb-adapted, meaning our bodies use carbs for energy. But carb energy peaks quickly, then sends you crashing. Your body then craves more quick energy—it longs for bread, sugar, pasta. When you eat that stuff, the cycle continues, with your body craving food that’s not very nutritious, experiencing a surge of energy, then feeling depleted. This is obviously not a good way to live. And it’s especially serious after age 45 or so, because most people become increasingly carbohydrate intolerant, meaning the body doesn’t metabolize carbs as efficiently as it once did. This is why the risk of diabetes goes up. Starchy foods also cause inflammation (see Inflammatory foods age the body) and, no surprise, weight gain, especially in the belly region.
The solution is to change your eating behaviors so your body becomes fat-adapted; that is, it gets in the habit of using fats rather than carbs for energy. This is achieved by eating lots of leafy greens and healthy natural fats, some protein, and very few carbs. So nuts, salad, eggs, avocado, non-starchy veggies, grass-fed meat, fatty fish.
Healthy fats are a much better source of fuel than starch is. Fat burns slowly and evenly. It keeps you energized for a long time and allows your blood sugar to stay steady. When your body is getting its energy from natural fats, you don’t experience radical peaks and valleys. So becoming fat-adapted instead of carb-adapted is kind of life-changing.
It’s also easy to eat a lot less with this plan, which is (literally) the most important change for aging well (see Just. Eat. Less.). Leptin, a hormone that regulates hunger and feelings of satiety, is disrupted by too many sweets and starches. When you cut out those foods, you’re likely to feel full sooner.
As your body adjusts to smaller meals high in natural fats, which will take a few weeks, you’ll notice changes: Cravings may fade or disappear, you’re probably going to be less hungry, and your energy will likely be steady throughout the day.
A little clarification: We’re not saying all carbs are bad. Technically speaking, everything apart from protein or fat is a carb. We’re talking about cutting refined carbs and starchy carbs: bread, pasta, snack food, rice and other grains, potatoes, corn. Starch should not be an everyday thing, unless you’re amazing at limiting yourself to a tiny serving. But research shows that carbs are actually physically addictive: “Doing carbs” releases some of the same brain chemicals as doing drugs, so it’s extremely difficult to have only a little bit of pasta (as if you needed scientific backup for this). Keeping starch off the plate is probably going to be easier and more effective. Out of sight, out of mind.
Here are some motivators. If one of these points speaks to you, use it as a reminder (even a mantra) to stay on track.
Old habits can be difficult to change. A lot of us were raised with three kinds of food on the dinner plate (meat, vegetables, starch), and dinner doesn’t feel like dinner without that third food. A solution we’ve found to be effective: Replace the starch with a healthy fat—a few slices of avocado, a dollop of herbed full-fat yogurt, a bit of fresh mozzarella—and soon you won’t even miss it. Or sub in cauliflower rice or cauliflower mash. It has a satisfying starchy quality, without the negative metabolic effects of pasta or rice. Also consider grain-free almond-flour pasta (we like Cappello’s). Almond-flour pasta is preferable to pastas made from chickpeas, lentils, or black beans because it’s lower in starch.
It could be said that when it comes to aging well, breakfast is the least important meal of the day. Short fasts, which, as we explained, are so beneficial, are easy to accomplish if you just cancel breakfast. Even on days when you’re not officially fasting, it makes sense to think in terms of two meals a day rather than three. Less food means less work for the body, less processing, less energy devoted to digesting and sorting, which leaves more energy for other things, like repairing and rebuilding. Also, fasting is another one of those “mild stresses” on the body that deliver beneficial hormetic effects (enduring a little stress makes you stronger).
Thinking in terms of two meals supports this plan and, frankly, frees up time in your schedule. Breakfast doesn’t need to be the meal you skip. It could be dinner. The important thing is to consume the bulk of your food in the middle of the day, not when you wake up, and not very close to bedtime—try to end your last meal about three hours before going to bed whenever possible.
A two-meal pattern tends to become more doable as we age because of lifestyle changes. If you’re a parent, the kids may be grown or in their teens, with independent schedules. You’re no longer regularly called upon to put three meals a day on the table, which lets you accommodate your own needs with a bit more ease.
This isn’t the kind of thing you need to be super strict about. Food as a centerpiece of family life or socializing is important. As we’ve said, sharing a meal with loved ones offers nourishment for the soul, and this too is an important part of aging well. So two meals a day isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. But it’s a good default.
The other key component here is portion size. We live in a country of giant servings. It’s out of control. Even when you’re eating only two meals a day, you want to keep those meals fairly small and nutrient-dense. The trick of using smaller plates is not new but is really effective: Store away those giant dinner dishes, and dine off of “salad” plates instead. The dimensions naturally keep meals down to a healthy size. Eat till your hunger goes away, not till you’re full—and pause before you consider seconds. Take this mindset with you when you’re eating out too. In a restaurant, split dishes with your companion or order from the starters menu and skip the mains. If you find yourself with a big plate of food in front of you, eat half and bring home the rest for the next day.
See what it feels like to eat less. You might discover that you feel lighter and more energetic. And as we explained in the previous chapter, the simple act of reducing your intake of food can have profound effects on your health.
There are certain problematic oils widely used in cooking that are wreaking havoc on your system. These so-called “vegetable” oils are terrible, and they’re everywhere: in the delicious panfried dumplings from the lunch place near your office, in the steak burrito at that somewhat healthy fast-casual chain, in the fries at a good French restaurant.
Canola oil is one of them. Many people mistakenly believe it’s healthy because it’s low in saturated fat; in reality, it’s awful, as are safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, and anything named “vegetable” oil (which, incidentally, contains no vegetables). All are highly refined and high in omega-6’s (that’s bad), and many are genetically modified. When heated, they release highly reactive unstable molecules—tiny particles that get into the bloodstream and cause inflammation, which wears you down from the inside, aging your organs before their time. A recent study by the University of California shows that soybean oil, the most common oil used in the United States, causes genetic changes in the brain.
This is easy to work around at home: Don’t use any of the vegetable and seed oils listed above. You have plenty of great options to work with. As you probably already know, one of the best is extra-virgin olive oil, which is full of health-boosting polyphenols. Be sure you’re getting the good stuff—there have been massive instances of fraud on olive oil shelves. Much like the word “organic,” the language that once ensured high-quality extra-virgin olive oil (“first pressing,” “from Italy”) has become unreliable and somewhat meaningless. Shop reputable brands, focus on freshness, and check dates. Olive oil should come in a dark glass bottle (which protects it from sunlight damage) and should be no more than 18 months old. Think of it as perishable; move through a bottle in three to four weeks.
Some people think that because its smoke point is fairly low, extra-virgin olive oil is not great for cooking. That isn’t true. It does have a low smoke point, but the polyphenols compensate for any damage caused to the oil when heated. Uncooked olive oil is especially beneficial to the body. So drizzle it generously on everything—salads, soups, meat.
Other plant-derived oils we recommend for cooking are avocado oil, virgin coconut oil (unbleached and not “deodorized”), and unrefined palm oil (we should mention that some players in the palm oil industry have devastated the rainforest; you can find ethically sourced palm oil with some research).
We’re also in favor of cooking with animal fats, believe it or not, as long as the animal has been raised on grass, treated well, and not injected with hormones. Good animal fats are healthy to cook with because they’re saturated fats and therefore don’t oxidize (and cause inflammation) when heated. Some good fats in this category are grass-fed butter, lard, beef tallow, goose and duck fat (very rich and flavorful), and grass-fed ghee (ghee is butter that’s been clarified—heated and separated, with the milk proteins removed).
It’s easy to stick with healthy oils in your own food prep. The tricky part is avoiding problematic oils at restaurants or in snack foods. You just don’t know what you’re eating in restaurants, and you should assume that most dishes have been prepared using a problematic oil. One solution when eating out is to choose foods that don’t involve cooking oils at all, from steamed vegetables and roast chicken to sushi to steak and salad (dress with olive oil and vinegar).
Packaged snacks are often made with canola or other inflammatory vegetable oils—just one of many reasons to avoid them. Read labels on crackers, pretzels, and chips; we bet you can’t find one that doesn’t contain one of the offending oils (to review, that’s canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, and vegetable oil). Skip these snacks in favor of real food: raw nuts, a handful of berries, guacamole, fresh hummus with vegetables—you get the picture.
Don’t believe negative talk about eggs. Really fresh high- quality eggs are a great source of protein, natural fat, vitamins, and minerals. “Superfood” is an overused term, but eggs actually earn the title. They’re loaded with key nutrients like choline—essential for brain health and often deficient in plant-based diets—and lutein and zeaxanthin, which support eye health. For most people, it’s fine to consume two good-quality eggs a day.
Spend more to get the best-quality eggs you can find. The language you’re looking for is “hormone-free and pasture-raised” (“free range” used to mean something, but now it really doesn’t). This is currently your best shot at ensuring that your eggs come from chickens that have been properly nourished.
Boiled or poached is the best possible way to eat eggs, but scrambled or fried in good butter, olive oil, or another healthy natural fat is fine too. When you’re eating out, it’s safe to assume that the fat used to cook eggs is not the best. So for breakfast at the coffee shop, it’s smartest to go with boiled or poached.
Since the quality of eggs is so important, buy your eggs as close to the source as possible. Best is a farmers’ market, where you can talk to the farmer. At the supermarket, look for local brands that are hormone-free and pasture-raised. Good eggs are flavorful and satisfying, with yolks that are often a deep yellow-orange. You’ll notice the difference.
Recent research tells us that as we age, we should be getting more of our protein from plants and less from animals. It’s about those longevity genes AMPK and mTOR, which are important nutrient sensors. mTOR controls a number of cell functions, including cell growth and cell proliferation. For younger people who are growing or whose bodies are in reproductive mode, mTOR has many benefits. But when we get older, we don’t want to encourage cell proliferation (cancer is cell proliferation). The goal at this point is to inhibit mTOR. Animal protein, especially red meat, contains high amounts of branched chain amino acids like leucine, which stimulate mTOR. Plant protein does not contain much of these amino acids, so it does not stimulate mTOR as much; mTOR also gets in the way of autophagy (the body’s cell-cleaning function). So turn up the plant protein, turn down the meat and dairy.
Here are some of the best plant sources of protein, and the approximate amount a serving delivers.
Protein can be tricky, because your needs change as you age—and because it’s been drummed into our heads that more protein is always better (we all know that a high-protein, low-carb diet is good for weight loss). But between ages 45 and 65, it’s more important to eat less meat and dairy than it is to go crazy with protein. A person in this age range weighing 150 pounds needs about 55 grams of protein a day. Most people get this amount without too much effort.
After age 65, protein becomes extremely important. At this point, your body needs more protein, to combat sarcopenia—loss of muscle mass—which is just a natural part of life (see Maintaining muscle mass is critical for more on this). So you want to increase your protein intake by about 25 percent: A 150-pound person who’s 65 or over should aim for about 70 grams of protein a day. This, combined with exercise, especially strength training, helps minimize the loss of muscle mass.
Is it better to increase your protein sooner, between age 45 and 65? No. It’s actually better not to, if your source, as it is for most folks, is meat and dairy. As we explain in Less meat and cheese; more nuts and beans, there are issues with animal protein. Once your body has changed from production mode to preservation mode (at about age 45), too much animal protein can support the growth of things you don’t want growing.
The tipping point is around age 65. From 65 on, if you need to eat more animal products than you’ve been consuming to get the amount of protein you need, so be it. It’s very important.
Natural fats from animals raised well provide excellent fuel for the body. We’re in favor of small amounts of meat that come from the right place. The problem is, most animal products have been badly messed with. In concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs), animals are given antibiotics to prevent infection from the crowded, unsanitary conditions (and also to fatten them up); if you’re eating CAFO (aka factory-farmed) meat, you’re eating antibiotics, which screws up your microbiome. Also, many producers of meat feed cows corn instead of grass, because corn is cheaper. Cows are ruminants; they should be eating grass. When you get a piece of steak from a cow that’s been raised on corn, the fat profile is all wrong—a healthy fat has been turned into an unhealthy fat. CAFO fish, dairy, and eggs come with a lot of the same problems. This is why it’s so important to find grass-fed and grass-finished meat (“finished” is a critical term, because there are not enough regulations around industry language to give “grass-fed” a reliable time frame—were the animals grass-fed for only a week, and then given corn?). For chicken and eggs, look for the phrase “pasture-raised.” Stores like Trader Joe’s and Wegmans have good meat. Another great option, as we’ve said, is to shop at a farmers’ market where you can talk to the people who raise the animals. Beef, chicken, pork, lamb—all should come from the best possible source.
If you don’t have nearby sources for pasture-raised, grass-fed organic meat and wild-caught fish, you can order online (the company Vital Choice is an excellent online source). For more protein without a lot more food, consider options like bone broth and collagen powder (it’s made from the tendons and ligaments of cows or fish and strengthens the same in us). Organ meats (liver, tongue, sweetbreads) are especially nutrient-dense; if you like them and can get them from a great source, then by all means, eat them. These and the items below are some of the best sources of animal protein. Here’s what a serving of each delivers.
Salt has a negative reputation, but it contains key minerals your body needs. You want to avoid refined salt (table salt), which has been bleached and baked, and the processed, demineralized salt in packaged foods. Really good, unrefined crystal salt, like pink Himalayan salt or Redmond salt, from Utah (sold under the brand name Real Salt), is good for you and essential. Mountain salts are now preferable to sea salts, because recent research has detected microplastics in certain sea salts.
Good salts contain more than 80 trace minerals that aid in all sorts of functions. Sometimes good salt is the solution to a specific health issue. If you’re feeling faint or dizzy when you exercise, or if your blood pressure is very low or your brain is foggy, you might need more good salt. If you feel perpetually exhausted, sometimes a glass of water with a half teaspoon of salt is the fix. Muscle spasms can happen because people are short on salt. If you sweat a lot, you might need more salt (and magnesium). Your adrenals also benefit from good salt. And it’s nonsense that salt is bad for your heart. As with everything you put in or on your body, it’s about the source and the quality. Buy the best mountain salt you can afford (Himalayan salt is easy to find), and use it generously. If you have hypertension and have been told to reduce your salt, cut processed foods and table salt, and switch to Himalayan salt at home.
As you know, sugar is not just sugar. It’s honey, agave, white wine, bananas, grapes. It’s starchy carbs like pasta and potatoes and bread and even corn. And to your body, there’s not much difference, so you want to keep an eye on your overall consumption.
When investigating your habits for below-the-radar sugar, you have to look at alternative milks, if you use them. Oat milk is, of course, too good to be true. Regular Oatly has 19 grams of sugar per serving and 24 grams of carbs. If you can’t tolerate dairy but need a splash of something in your coffee, use unsweetened alterna-milks, such as coconut milk or carrageenan-free almond milk (Califia Farms is a good brand). Carrageenan is a thickener that some people are sensitive to.
Bottled drinks—from Starbucks or the deli or elsewhere—tend to contain massive amounts of sugar. They really shouldn’t be a part of your life. So-called “energy drinks” are often the worst of the bunch. There are 27 grams of sugar in a bottle of Gatorade and 32 grams in a bottle of Vitaminwater. As we said earlier, there’s no reason to ever go near these. A recent study even links them to a rise in blood pressure. Bottled iced tea also tends to be full of sugar. If you buy a bottle of something to drink, it should always, always, always be water.
While some vegetables are sugary, you shouldn’t go around worrying about that. Carrots and beets and other sweet veggies deliver fiber with their sugar: Fibrous foods fill you up, so you’re not going to overdo them. You’ll feel sated way before the sugar content becomes an issue. This is why fruit juice—and most vegetable juice—is a problem. And why it’s best to eat fruits and veggies in their naked state when possible. A whole apple delivers lots of fiber, which slows absorption of the accompanying fruit sugar, and fills you up at the same time. The easy rule is to eat, not drink, your fruit.
When you side-by-side coffee and tea, there’s a clear winner. Coffee is fine—it has no detrimental effects for most people, and contains a small amount of polyphenols, so it’s mildly beneficial. But good tea is magnificent. Rich in polyphenols, which activate important longevity gene pathways, repair cells, prime the immune system, and reduce inflammation, high-quality black or green tea is powerful. (The difference between black and green is just the timing of the harvest.)
Buy organic tea, because conventionally grown tea is one of the most pesticide-laden crops, and enjoy two, three, four cups a day.
As for coffee, if the caffeine is not affecting your sleep, one or two cups of organic coffee a day is not a bad thing. But if it’s interfering with sleep, it should go. The thing is, you might not even be aware of the effect caffeine is having on your sleep. Could be that you’re an afternoon coffee-drinker who has no trouble falling asleep but whose sleep cycle—specifically deep sleep—is being impacted. A break from caffeine can give you some good information.
Of course, both tea and coffee can function as a delivery system for sugar, and neither should. If you use sugar or honey (basically the same to the body), taper down by half each week till it’s gone from your life. Or replace your sweetener with Stevia or monk fruit.
A small amount of unsweetened nut milk in your coffee or tea is fine, as is cream, if dairy doesn’t bother your stomach. If you use dairy, choose cream or half-and-half over milk, and whole milk over low-fat milk—there’s less sugar in the fattier options (yes, there’s more fat, but we’re much more worried about sugar than we are about good fats).
You should also give MCT oil a try. If you’re not familiar with it, MCT is a derivative of coconut oil (it can come from other oils too, but most of what you find in stores comes from coconuts). It’s a healthy fat that doesn’t need to be broken down and processed, as other fats do. MCT is absorbed right into the bloodstream, and goes straight to the brain. For a real energy drink, stir MCT into your coffee. It doesn’t have much of a taste, but it’s a bit oily. You might want to add some unsweetened almond or coconut milk, and whip it up with a small milk frother—this makes for a rich, creamy drink. The combined boost of MCT and caffeine brings a nice feeling of mental clarity. It’s a great way to start your day.
Many meat replacement products are junky, because they’re heavily processed and contain a lot of questionable ingredients: genetically modified soy, canola oil, sunflower oil, yeast extract, unspecified “flavors,” modified food starch—the list goes on. Processed foods are never a great choice; eating foods closer to their natural state is always better.
“Plant-based” is one of those terms that’s been hijacked for commercial reasons, in this case, by the faux-meat industry. It’s meaningless (if you wanted to, you could call Twinkies “plant-based”). If you eat meat replacements, find those with as few ingredients as possible, and no canola oil or GMOs. Impossible Burgers, in the current formulation, contain a lot of ingredients you shouldn’t be consuming. The field is growing, and there will be more and more options, so read up, choose carefully, and don’t fool yourself about what you’re eating. Faux meat may be better than CAFO meat, but even the best options are heavily processed, so it’s not going to be as good as the clean grass-fed, grass-finished meat you buy from a great source and cook at home—or a nice bowl of homemade lentils.
Apply the same rules across the board: Eat whole foods, and be really skeptical about anything processed, especially products with a “healthy alternative” veneer.
Changing your personal food culture is not about perfection. What you’re going for is a baseline of healthy food habits geared toward aging well. What does that look like? Not too much food; not eating too late or too early, so that your body gets a good long rest from digesting every day; fresh, real foods as close as possible to their natural form; very few grains and refined carbs; more plants than animals. We don’t want to say you should go strictly paleo or keto. Better to look more holistically at your habits—shift your food mindset, and adjust how you think about food as a part of your life. That said, we want to acknowledge the inherent challenges in the advice we’re giving. Here are some answers that might help.
Based on current longevity research, all animal protein is problematic as you age—meat (beef, pork, poultry) and dairy are the worst. So you want to limit your consumption of cheese and yogurt, as well as meat. And when you do eat animal protein, make sure it’s from a high-quality source. Fish is less problematic than meat and dairy. (Also, if dairy gives you digestive trouble, skip it completely.)
Yes, but they’re full of so many great nutrients that they fall into their own category. This is one of those tricky contradictions. For protein, the order from good to problematic is plant protein (unprocessed nuts, seeds, and beans), then fish, then eggs, then dairy, then meat.
It’s really about the source. Grass-fed beef is better for you than antibiotic-laden corn-fed chicken. Get the best-quality meat you can afford, no matter the type.
Try to limit yourself to five to seven servings a week of meat or dairy, and not more than one serving a day. It’s challenging, but it’s something to shoot for. You’ll find yourself eating a lot more vegetables, which is great.
No question, this is an issue. The bigger the fish, the bigger the mercury problem. Tuna, swordfish, tilefish, shark, and king mackerel are among the worst options regarding mercury; limit consumption of these “big fish” to once a week. Smaller fish—trout, flounder, fluke, catfish, sardines, anchovies, scallops, local shrimp—are much less of a problem. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is also a great choice. Canned light tuna is lower in mercury than canned albacore. Shopping online for good fish brands like Safe Catch and Vital Choice can help minimize your exposure to mercury. You can also get your blood level for mercury checked by your doctor. But it’s not just mercury you need to be concerned about—now there are microplastics being found in fish. The oceans are polluted, so you really need to be judicious in your fish consumption.
Yes, tempeh, which is fermented, is a better choice than tofu. And edamame, which is unprocessed, is the best choice of all for soy. It’s very important to buy organic when it comes to soy products—most soy on the market is genetically modified (GMO). One or two portions a week is fine, if it doesn’t upset your stomach. But you don’t want to eat too much soy, no matter what. Why? Soy has high levels of phytic acid, which can affect your body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients (magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and others). It can also interfere with protein digestion and endocrine function. Too much soy may be a factor in hypothyroidism or other conditions. So don’t overdo it.
We need to be realistic. The twin goals of cutting down on animal products and getting enough protein might mean that some of your sources are processed. Organic powdered hemp protein and pea protein are good options, as is collagen powder—add them to a shake. Good brands are Vital Proteins, Designs for Health, and Thorne. But eat whole foods whenever possible.
Sure, but eating less overall is a key factor in aging well. So don’t go crazy consuming massive amounts of beans and nuts. Processing too much food is hard on the body.
Social eating and time around the table with loved ones is important—there’s nourishment in being with people you care about, laughing, talking, and eating. If you can contribute to what’s on the table, bring a dish full of greens or veggies, and favor that when you fill your plate. If not, just do your best; eat less of the starchy stuff and more of the greens, and don’t get too hung up on it.
Of course, food—even at home—is about much more than nutrients. It’s about social connection, love, comfort. It can be what we reflexively turn to when we’re bored or lonely. One of the difficulties in relating to food as you age is that you simply need less of it. And if you live a life or come from a family where food is really central, you may have to make a concerted effort to change. Shaping your day around other (non-meal) activities—new habits, new rewards—can be a challenge, but it will pay off. We invite you to give it some thought: How might you need to adjust your relationship with food to take the best possible care of yourself as you age? It’s a personal question, and you’ll figure out the right answers for you.
Like protein, fiber is a huge part of a healthy diet for aging well. And by fiber we don’t mean bran or any kind of grain at all. We’re talking about cellulose plant fiber, especially the parts of raw vegetables and fruits that your body can’t easily digest. This stuff—also known as prebiotics—is gold for your microbiome. It’s the material that serves as food for good gut bacteria.
It’s pretty simple to get plenty of prebiotics: Eat the parts of vegetables you normally toss out: the end of carrots, the stump of the lettuce head, the stemmed tips of green beans. This is cellulose fiber (aka insoluble fiber). It gets down to the large intestine undigested, where the good bacteria is waiting to feast. Eat things like kale ribs and the hard stalks of broccoli; slice them and dip them in hummus, or toss them into a salad. Have lots of onions, garlic, asparagus, dandelion greens, and chicory root—all great prebiotic material.
The interplay of prebiotics and probiotics is what creates healthy gut bacteria. We’re emphasizing prebiotics here because most people don’t get enough of them. As for probiotics—you probably know you can get them in yogurt, kefir, kimchee, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods. (Food is the best source, but a good supplement such as Activated You Restorative Probiotic can help.)
You have to consciously feed the gut bacteria, the way you consciously feed yourself. We can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Your gut bacteria perform hundreds of essential tasks. They break down food, help extract nutrients, produce vitamins and brain chemicals, and have a huge influence on mood. Active care and feeding of these critical bacteria keeps the delicate gut wall nourished and strong, and is one of the best things you can do to improve and maintain your overall health.
Tending your gut bacteria is one of the most important parts of keeping your immune system strong and your whole body functioning well. And yes, this becomes a little more challenging as you get older. One reason is that as you age, digestive secretions decrease—in particular, gastric acid and pancreatic enzymes. This makes digestion more difficult and messes up the balance of the microbiome. Potentially wreaking further havoc on the microbiome could be certain medications (see Acid Reflux Medications), too much sugar and processed foods, and not enough pre- and probiotics. A messed-up microbiome contributes to discomfort but even worse can result in leaky gut—microscopic holes in the gut wall that allow poorly digested food particles and toxic specks (called metabolites) to “leak” through. This can cause inflammation and pain throughout the body (see Inflammatory foods age the body for details on inflammation).
The upshot: A “bad stomach” is not something to ignore. It’s a call to action. Pay attention. You need to make some changes. If you’re experiencing trouble, the following approaches should help.
Try an elimination diet: Cut sugar, processed foods, all grains (including soy and corn), and dairy from your diet for two weeks. See how your stomach feels. Reintroduce possible offenders one at a time, with a big helping of the experimental food at lunch and dinner. This is a surefire way to see if a particular food group is irritating your system. Then (and this sounds obvious, but a lot of people don’t do it) stop eating the problematic food! Pretend it’s poison, and get it out of your life. If you absolutely can’t let it go, use digestive enzymes when you eat the danger-food (like Lactaid tablets, if dairy is trouble). But the best thing—and the easiest way to eliminate gas, bloating, and other discomforts—is to simply cut out the food permanently, or at least until your microbiome has improved.
Take bitters or apple cider vinegar before meals. Either one can help with digestion. At the start of a meal, a tablespoon of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar (you can mix it into water) or a slug of Swedish bitters (Nature Works makes a good one) stimulates your natural digestive enzymes. Keep a bottle at work too; it doesn’t need refrigeration.
Try some antimicrobial herbal supplements, which can decrease bad bacteria and create a healthier gut. Look for a formula that combines some of the following: berberine, grapefruit seed extract, oregano oil, olive leaf extract, wormwood, black walnut, bearberry extract, barberry extract. One we like is GI Microb X, by Designs for Health.
Rest your gut. As a habit, an early dinner and a late breakfast—which we talk more about in 16-hour overnight fasting—will improve your digestion and the health of your microbiome. Leave a minimum of 12 hours between your last meal in the evening and your first the next day, and ideally 16 hours or more.
Get tested for leaky gut. If you have a functional medicine doctor, you can ask for an assessment called a GI-MAP (gastrointestinal microbial assay plus). This checks bacteria and zonulin levels. Zonulin is a protein molecule used to measure intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut). The test may not yet be available in every state.
Although the sugar in fresh fruit is natural and unprocessed, sugar is sugar, so even fruit needs limits.
Favor fruits that are lower in sugar than others; these include raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, green apples, grapefruit, cantaloupe, and honeydew. On the high-sugar end of the spectrum are grapes and tropical fruits like bananas, pineapples, and mangoes. In terms of the metabolic effects on the body, a ripe banana is not that different from a packet of sugar in your coffee.
Organic is important as always. The Environmental Working Group (EWG.org) lists crops that tend to be particularly pesticide-laden. The fruits it calls out are strawberries, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, and tomatoes. Buy organic or wash very well.
During seasons when there’s an abundance of great fresh fruit available, it’s easy to overdo the fruit sugar. Fruit is essentially nature’s candy, so go easy when the good stuff is abundant: A peach, two plums, and a bowl of watermelon would be too much in one day. Find ways to enjoy fruits in smaller quantities—cut up some fresh cherries and throw them into a salad. Grill a peach and share it as a side to chicken. Toss a few bites of watermelon with arugula and feta.
We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Eat whole fruit, and don’t get your fruit in juice form. Juice can be as bad as soda in terms of sugar content. Even vegetable juices often contain lots of sugar, because without sugar, they taste nasty. Have you ever had green juice with no sweetener—no apple or carrot or berries? If you did, you probably would never drink green juice again. Read the label of certain bottled green juices and you’ll see crazy numbers—like 30 grams of sugar (seven teaspoons, or almost as much as in a can of Coke). If you do drink green juice, find one with no more than 4 grams of sugar (one teaspoon). When you eat whole fruits and whole vegetables instead of drinking your produce, you get the benefits of fiber, which not only slows the absorption of sugar but also works its prebiotic magic on the gut.
Eating a variety of fresh foods ensures that you get a valuable range of micronutrients. Seaweeds contain nutrients like iodine that are hard to come by. When you look at the “blue zones” around the world (regions where folks have historically led exceptionally long, healthy lives), many of the populations eat a lot of sea vegetables.
There’s also some evidence that in cooking, kombu actually “cleans” other foods—extracting anti-nutrients. Famed New York chef David Bouley says he uses it partly to extract the pesticide glyphosate and other negative elements from ingredients.
With oceans in bad shape, finding a clean source of kombu—or any sea vegetable—is key. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables is a good brand. It tests its wild-harvested sea vegetables for microbes, pesticides, herbicides, petroleum, heavy metals, and more.
You can add kombu to miso soup—excellent for the gut when you use good miso paste (look for an organic refrigerated brand), because of the fermentation process. It’s wise to treat sea vegetables the same way you treat fish, which is to say, enjoy them, but have them no more than a couple of times a week, because we just don’t know the impact of what’s in our oceans.
Many of the good things in life—wine, bread, pasta, ice cream, pizza, fries, cake, corn—cause inflammation in the body. And though you hear a lot about inflammation and its impact on your health, it can be easy to ignore. But it’s really important, and it should be taken seriously. So we’re going to try to make it a little more concrete.
Let’s say you eat a plate of fries. Potatoes are starch, which turns to sugar, so that’s going to increase your blood sugar. Because of the cooking oil in which the fries are made, you’re taking in excess omega-6 fatty acids, which can trigger the body to produce inflammatory chemicals. (It’s not that omega-6’s are inherently bad; it’s about the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. If they’re not balanced, it can cause inflammation. Omega-6’s are ubiquitous in our food system, particularly in the oils of processed foods. That’s why we recommend fish oil supplements—see fish oil—they’re full of omega-3’s.) So now you’ve got these inflammatory chemicals running through your system. That old shoulder injury that’s usually okay but acts up seemingly at random—well, it’s now surging with inflammatory particles. Whatever low-level inflammation is always there becomes exacerbated. And you wake up the next day achy and lethargic. In other words, that crummy feeling you have some mornings is not in fact random—it’s a direct result of what you ate.
In addition, if you’re in the habit of regularly consuming junky food, your microbiome is likely to be imbalanced. That imbalance means your gut wall is not as strong as it should be. This could also allow inflammatory particles to leak into your bloodstream, causing irritation throughout your system. You get headaches, feel foggy. You have unexplained fatigue, joint pain, and body aches. You’re getting eczema or rashes. You’re mucus-y. Your face is puffy. You’re gaining weight and experiencing anxiety. And because chronic inflammation is weakening your immune system, your risks go up for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.
Chronic inflammation may not initially produce symptoms, but it’s one of the underlying problems of many, if not most, diseases, including brain and mind disorders. In other words, even if you don’t know you’ve got it, inflammation is having a detrimental effect. That’s why the lifestyle in this book—which helps decrease inflammation—is so important.
Inflammation is a critical factor in aging. Your body doesn’t bounce back the way it used to, and the mantra of “do no harm” could not be more relevant than here: Foods fried in vegetable oils, white bread and pasta, processed carbs, sweetened drinks, CAFO meats—all of these cause harm in the form of inflammation. You’re going to feel—and age—a lot better if you avoid them and instead feed your body whole fresh foods, close to their natural state. It’s as simple as that.
There’s no real difference between bone broth and stock—the term “bone broth” was a branding thing. The benefits of the stuff, no matter what you call it, are real, and consumed regularly, bone broth can help protect the gut lining and even help heal damage to the gut wall. You can buy a good prepared brand like Kettle & Fire or Vital Choice, but homemade is going to be even more nutritious and more healing (and also less expensive).
If you already know how to make stock, you’re probably set. If not, here’s some guidance from New York City chef Marco Canora, founder of the renowned bone broth company Brodo. You don’t need to follow a precise recipe. What matters is the quality of your ingredients—organic, hormone-free, grass-fed and grass-finished—and a nice long cook time.
Throw 2 to 4 pounds of meaty bones in a big pot. You can use bones from poultry, beef, lamb, or fish—even just the meaty carcass of a whole roast chicken. Cover the bones with water, and add 3 or 4 tablespoons of good apple cider vinegar. Let this sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour, without turning on the flame. Bring the pot to a boil, then turn it down to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for at least 6 hours—go even longer if you like. This extracts the most gelatin and nutrients from the bones. Toward the end, you can throw in some Himalayan salt, garlic, carrots, and herbs if you like. Once the broth is done, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool a bit. Pick out and toss the big bones, then strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve or a regular strainer lined with cheesecloth and let cool completely. When fully cooled, the broth should wiggle like jelly thanks to the high gelatin content (gelatin is the cooked form of collagen)—that’s what nourishing broth looks like. If your broth doesn’t turn gelatinous, it’s still very good for you; just add more gristle to the mix next time (ask your butcher for feet, knucklebones, or necks, or include the skin from a roast chicken; if you’re making fish broth, use the head). You can store your broth in glass mason jars in the fridge. If you want to freeze it, leave a couple of inches of space at the top of containers to allow for expansion, or freeze without lids and cap containers later.
When you want some broth, open a container, scoop off and toss the solid layer of fat on top, then warm the broth in a saucepan. (Don’t microwave bone broth; it changes the composition of the nutrients.) Crush fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary, if you’ve got them on hand, drop them into the bottom of a mug, then pour in your broth. The heat will bring out the flavor of the herbs. If you have a small milk frother, you can stick that in the cup and whip the broth to make it creamy.
It’s easy to set yourself up to eat well at home. For starters, the old trick of using smaller plates really works to keep down portion size, which is essential for aging well. Also proven: Prepping ingredients in advance so you’re always ready to toss together a mason-jar meal for work or a delicious healthful dinner bowl. If you can spend 30 minutes or so on prep as you put away fresh food from the market—wash greens, peel carrots, boil a dozen eggs, blanch some green beans (leave the ends on—easier, and great for the microbiome), steam or sauté broccoli—you’ll be set.
With ready-to-grab greens and veggies, you’re always poised to make use of leftovers—homemade or restaurant- sourced. Even if you never cook, you can keep the kitchen stocked, as long as you shop carefully (when it comes to prepared foods, choose high-quality organic, lightly sauced plant foods). Start a bowl with greens and protein, and go from there. Here are some tips that will help you get in the habit of tossing together effortless, delicious, nourishing bowls.
Have a jar or two of something lacto-fermented, like kimchi or sauerkraut, in the fridge door (don’t let it migrate to the back of a shelf where you’ll forget to use it). Fermented foods are great for gut health, and they add tang to your bowl.
For protein, use whatever you’ve got: hard-boiled or fresh-cooked eggs, leftover fish or meat, canned whole sardines in olive oil, raw-milk cheese, full-fat Greek yogurt, or beans. Regarding dried beans, soaking overnight before cooking cleans away some of the anti-nutrients that can upset your stomach, specifically lectins. But good canned beans are also fine (Eden brand beans are pressure-cooked, which breaks down lectins). Lentils and adzuki beans don’t need soaking.
Finish your bowl with some healthy fat. So you don’t get bored with your bowls, keep many options in sight: an avocado ripening on the sill; great olive oil on the counter ready for drizzling; jars of raw walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts; Greek yogurt or good cheese, if you’re a dairy eater.
Add something unexpected. Not required, but it makes a bowl extra satisfying if you have two minutes to crisp up some shallots or onions in a pan. Toss them on top, warm or cooled. Throw in a few fresh berries or bite-size pieces of green apple for a touch of sweetness. Chop any fresh herb you have on hand and add that too.
Case Study
It all goes back to the gut
Julie, 46, comes in with joint pain, feeling tired. She’s already been to see three other doctors. Two gave her shots—cortisone and anti-inflammatories. The third was a rheumatologist, who found that she had a positive rheumatoid factor in her blood and said, ‘You have rheumatoid arthritis. Here’s some Humira.’ (Humira is a medication commonly prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease.) Julie feels sick on the Humira. She starts having headaches and feeling weak, then develops hives. She says to her rheumatologist, ‘Please, tell me who can help me without drugs.’
The rheumatologist sends her to me. I take a very detailed history, because there’s usually a reason someone develops a problem like this, and it’s often revealed in a patient’s story. It turns out that Julie has been having gut trouble for years. She didn’t really think about it—she was experiencing bloating, gas, bad breath, acid reflux—but what she noticed and sought treatment for was the joint pain.
I learn that Julie started having UTIs in college, 25 years earlier, and was given multiple courses of antibiotics. That’s when the gas and bloating began; these symptoms were ongoing and preceded the joint pain by 15 or 20 years.
Though Julie had not really thought about her gut problems—she accepted it as normal—her digestion was off, and her microbiome was out of balance for years. The antibiotics had likely caused this imbalance in her gut bacteria and probably led to leaky gut, which triggered the inflammation, presenting as joint pain and resulting in her finally being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
I give her a combination of berberine, oregano oil, wormwood, and other antimicrobial herbs to kill the overgrowth of the ‘bad guys’ in her gut. I temporarily put her on a low-carb diet—not just gluten-free and dairy-free, but also grain- and legume-free. I have her cut out nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and white potatoes) because these foods can trigger inflammation in someone who has leaky gut. To help the leaky gut heal, I add glutamine powder and fish oil and tell her to drink bone broth daily.
I have Julie do a five-day fasting-mimicking diet once a month: high in natural fats, low in carbs, low in protein (with no animal protein)—soups and salads only. Julie feels the inflammation decrease radically during the fast. The swelling and pain in her joints subside significantly.
Julie’s gut starts feeling better; over the next six months, her inflammation steadily decreases till eventually she has no pain or swelling in her joints at all. Eventually her autoimmune numbers reverse. The antibodies go away, and her numbers become normal. She maintains a low-carb diet, and she’s doing great.”