What you eat is one of the primary factors in determining how well you look and feel. Diet and lifestyle choices have a huge impact on your general health and appearance, as well helping to prevent diseases such as cancer, dementia and diabetes. Yet more than 80 per cent of Australians don’t eat enough fruit and 50 per cent don’t consume enough vegetables, according to research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Studies also indicate that many of us are not consuming sufficient levels of iron, zinc, vitamin A and selenium. Evidently, the potent anti-ageing power of food is being under-utilised, with many of us not even ensuring that our diets meet basic nutritional needs, let alone address the slow decline of the body that occurs with age.

Food can slow the ageing and degeneration of the body predominantly through the activity of antioxidants, which provide a strong defence against the actions of free radicals, a main offender in causing DNA damage, disease and ageing. Although poor diet can rapidly increase their effects, free radicals are unavoidable, as they are formed during day-to-day functions such as breathing and eating. Conversely, antioxidants stabilise free radicals and minimise the damage they cause.

By making optimal food choices you can reduce excess free radical production and increase your consumption of antioxidants. This will have a domino effect, slowing your natural ageing process and reducing the effects of environmental factors such as pollution and stress, which accelerate ageing. But, even if you are careful about your food choices and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables every day, you may still be able to fine-tune your meals further to boost your intake of anti-ageing nutrients.

Plant power

Many of the antioxidants your body needs to mop up free radicals are not from specific vitamins and minerals but from a range of substances known as phytonutrients. These powerful plant constituents also act synergistically to enhance the effect of other antioxidants. Phytonutrients are produced by plants to increase their chance of survival and encourage growth. They work within plants to aid detoxification and to attract or repel pests. So, thanks to the marvels of nature, we are able to reap the rewards through their fantastic flavours and health effects.

There are thousands of these plant-powered substances and we are uncovering more every day. Eat to ensure longevity by including a wide range of phytonutrients in every meal.

Rainbow foods

A colourful plate is a healthy plate. Consuming a rainbow of foods every day is a simple and flavour-boosting way to ensure you are getting a wide variety of nutrients and their equally wide array of therapeutic effects. If you usually eat a small range of vegetables and fruit on high rotation, it’s time to treat your plate more like a painter’s palette and enjoy the full range of phytonutrients the plant world has to offer.

Blue/purple

Potent choices include:

• Blueberries
• Plums
• Black grapes
• Red cabbage
• Beetroot
• Eggplant
• Cherries
• Blackberries

These fruits and vegies get their colour from anthocyanins and phenolics, which are potent antioxidants. They have been linked to reduced rates of colon cancer, inflammation and damaged blood vessel walls (which equates to a healthier cardiovascular system due to a reduced chance of stroke). Blueberries have even been found to improve conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s because of their strong antioxidant action and ability to cross the blood–brain barrier. Recent research from the Cornell University Department of Food Sciences shows blueberries have the highest cellular antioxidant activity of any fruit.

Red

Red foods contain an important phytonutrient antioxidant known as lycopene, which has been linked to reduced rates of breast, prostate and bowel cancer. This antioxidant is from a group known as carotenoids and has been found to be most effective when concentrated through heat, so get that pasta sauce on the stove.

Treat your palate to the following:

• Tomatoes
• Capsicum
• Pink grapefruit
• Strawberries
• Rosehips
• Watermelon
• Raspberries