As we age, wellness often becomes a question of “how can I enjoy life for longer?”
Many factors affect your ability to enjoy a long, healthy life, including genetics, lifestyle, and circumstances. Your lifestyle choices hold the greatest potential to ensure a vibrant and fulfilling life as you age. Taking time for practices like maintaining a nourishing diet, prioritizing sleep, managing stress, staying hydrated, and incorporating mindfulness can all contribute to a longer, happier life.
The incredible part about making these changes is that once you begin feeling their effects, you’ll want to expand the practice. Explore any change with grace and patience. Like most goals, you won’t get there overnight, and that’s okay! Just start adding in nourishing habits, like eating a longevity diet, little by little, and watch your energy grow.
Why Eating for Longevity Foods Benefits Your Health
- Prevents chronic disease—Chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and COPD are major causes of death in the U.S. These diseases are often attributable to chronic inflammation that can be caused or exacerbated by poor diet and stress.
- Increases vitality—Eating longevity foods will not only help keep you live longer, they will also help you live each day to the fullest! When combined with other healthy lifestyle practices such as movement and meditation, eating a diet full of longevity-friendly foods can help you feel your best for a long time.
- Achieves bright, beautiful skin and hair—Beauty truly does come from the inside. Eating a diet rich in plant-based fats and void of toxins, can keep your hair and skin looking healthy and youthful.
- Improves cognitive function— The polyphenols and flavonoids found in plant foods are known for their neuroprotective properties.
- Boosts immune health—The nutrients found in a plant-based diet support immune function, which means you can enjoy life with fewer acute illnesses.
Letting Go of Unhealthy Eating Habits for Longevity
When you begin eating a rainbow of whole foods, you’ll likely start feeling more energized. If you add more vegetables and fruits and release foods that are harmful to your health, the results will be even greater.
Foods to limit or avoid for longevity include:
- Processed and fried foods
- Refined grains
- Refined sugar
- Processed meats
- Alcohol
Regular consumption of these foods is known to cause chronic inflammation in the body.
Changing eating habits can be challenging, but the true beauty lies in the transformation. Once you experience how incredible you feel after adopting a longevity diet, you won’t want to return to your old ways.
Eating for Chakra Balance and Longevity
From a place of spiritual nutrition, our seven energy centers, also known as chakras, have different colors that represent them. You can eat foods that correlate with the color of each chakra to help guide that center back into balance. If you’re having different colored food throughout the day, or in other words, if you’re eating the rainbow, you are also supporting all of your energy centers!
Learn more about eating to support chakra balance
What to Eat to Enhance Your Longevity
Truthfully, you don’t need to overthink your longevity diet. My top recommendation is to eat the rainbow—add a robust list of plant foods to your diet; the more colorful, the better. Each color of vegetables correlates to a class of phytonutrients that provide unique health benefits.
The following recommendation is to hydrate. I usually recommend that people drink their body weight in ounces of water each day (so if you weigh 150 lbs., you would consume 150 oz of water throughout the day).
Fruits & Vegetables
Studies show that eating more fruits and vegetables is connected to lower risk of all-cause mortality. That is one of the reasons why eating the rainbow is my first recommendation when it comes to eating for longevity. Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and fiber, so aim for seasonal variety, and eat what you enjoy!
Green fruits and vegetables like avocado, Brussels sprouts, green apples, asparagus, broccoli, and cucumbers contain phytonutrients like chlorophyll and folate which provide antioxidant properties and support brain health and development. Green foods also support balance in the heart chakra.
Red fruits and vegetables like apples, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, radishes, red cabbage, and tomatoes contain phytochemicals such as anthocyanins, carotenoids, lycopene, and quercetin which have potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and support disease prevention. Red foods also support balance in the root chakra.
Orange fruits and vegetables like oranges, yams, orange peppers, cantaloupe, apricots, peaches, and carrots contain phytonutrients like bioflavonoids (citrus) and carotenoids that have antioxidant properties, help prevent some cancers and support immune function. Orange foods also support balance in the sacral chakra.
Yellow fruits and vegetables like bananas, lemons, pineapple, squash, and yellow bell peppers provide phytonutrients such as bromelain (pineapple), lutein, and zeaxanthin that provide antioxidants and benefit eye and gut health. Yellow foods support balance in the solar plexus chakra.
Blue-purple fruits and vegetables like blackberries, grapes, eggplant, plums, purple carrots, and purple kale contain phytonutrients such as anthocyanidins, flavonoids, resveratrol (grapes), and phenolic acids that support brain health, disease prevention, and mood balance.
Other foods to incorporate in your longevity diet:
Legumes, like beans and lentils, supply your body with fiber, protein, and folate. Dan Buettner, who wrote The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, found that though centenarians from all over the world have unique diets, they all eat legumes. Research has demonstrated that eating legumes can reduce the risk of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease.
Nuts and seeds are a source of healthy fats, protein, omega-3s, and antioxidants. The unsaturated fats found in these foods may lower cholesterol and protect the heart. Nuts and seeds support brain and heart health.
Whole grains like oats, farro, barley, bulgur, and brown rice support longevity though improved cholesterol levels and disease prevention.
Extra-virgin olive oil contains polyphenols with powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, making it a food that supports disease prevention. One study conducted at Harvard found that higher olive oil consumption is associated with lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or lung disease.
Learn how to create a longevity meal plan
Supplements for Longevity
Several supplements can support your longevity diet. However, make sure to check with your health care practitioner before starting a new supplement regimen.
- NAC helps the body create glutathione, a powerful antioxidant.
- Supplements that support gut health can support lifespan.
- Spermidine supports cellular health and restoration.
- Vitamin D supplementation helps stave off age-related disease.
- Magnesium deficiency is connected to inflammation that may lead to age-related disease.
Lifestyle Practices for Longevity
While diet can play an important role in our length and quality of life, it’s not the only lifestyle factor that matters. In my Culinary Alchemy® method, I approach health from a holistic point-of-view that takes into account physical, mental, spiritual, and energetic well-being. Consider the following activities for longevity enhancement:
- Mindfulness
- Exercise
- Stress management
- Spiritual nourishment
- Energy work
- Friendship
Eating for longevity can be an enjoyable, nourishing experience. Find foods for longevity that you enjoy and have fun exploring all of the beautiful colors (and phytonutrients!) that nature provides.
Connect with Serena Loves
As you start adding longevity-boosting foods to your diet, you’ll likely notice an increase in vitality. It might take time to build the habit of eating for longevity, but as you incorporate more of these foods, you’ll feel more energized and alive. For the best results, combine a longevity-focused diet with healthy lifestyle practices like regular movement and mindfulness.
Want to explore more health practices for longevity? You can find my easy and tasty, soul and body nourishing recipes here, shop for my holistic products, and check out my blog for the latest insights and tips on holistic wellness.
