We want to live a long and happy life, and we all want to stay young and look young. Scientists are passionate about longevity, contributing to understanding the mechanism of aging. Research shows that our aging speed is related to the level of advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.
What are AGEs?
AGEs are compounds of protein/fat and sugar. When our intake of sugar is too high, excess sugar combines with protein/fat and becomes harmful to our body.
AGEs accumulate in various parts of our body, causing dysfunction of blood vessels, sickness in the kidney and heart, and skin deterioration such as wrinkles and spots, and so on.
One way to slow down our aging process is to reduce AGEs.
Here's how to reduce AGEs for your longevity. All of these steps are simple, and you can start today.
1. Eat in this order:
Vegetable => Protein => Carbohydrates.
The faster our blood sugar rises, the more AGEs accumulate.
Don’t eat carbohydrates first because your blood sugar will spike up. Eating vegetables first raises the blood sugar level slowly.
2. Don’t take too much sugar
Well, you have probably heard this advice a million times already. Sometimes it can be difficult to follow, but here are my tips for reducing sugar intake:
1) Don’t drink canned sweetened drinks.
2) Switch from white sugar to brown sugar.
3. Change the cooking method
The bad news is that AGEs are not only formed inside our bodies; some foods also contain high levels of AGEs.
The good news is that there are cooking methods that produce fewer AGEs.
Here they are ranked from best to worst:
1) Eat raw.
2) Steam or boil.
3) Grill or pan-fry.
4) Deep-fry.
Generally speaking, foods cooked at high temperatures have more AGEs. Therefore, salads and sashimi are good choices in terms of cooking temperature.
Steaming and boiling are also good options since the temperatures are not as high as grilling or pan-frying.
This is my low AGEs breakfast (below).
Grated Yamaimo with bonito flake and soy sauce and Lady’s finger nukazuke (Japanese pickles)
I know that sometimes we cannot resist eating french fries. It’s okay to indulge once in a while, but please don’t overdo it.
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