You are what you eat, or so the saying goes. I wanted to give an example of how you can optimise your diet around specific nutrients (that are in everyday foods) that will benefit your healthspan. The following is also a good example of how what you eat will affect the expression of your genes or the epigenetic effect that foods, as one part of your lifestyle, can have on your overall health.
The Complex Bit:
* Sulforaphane is a compound that is a type of isothiocyanate that can be consumed by eating cruciferous vegetables. Sulforaphane activates a genetic pathway (NRF2) in our cells more potently than any other known dietary compound. The NRF2 gene is a master regulator controlling over 200 other genes and determining whether they are switched on or off. These other genes control inflammation, anti-oxidant production and help to detoxify the body. Basically, genes that help deal with daily stressors, helping to mop up damaging free radicals thus reducing cellular damage that left unchecked would cumulatively speed up the ageing process.
The Simple Bit:
* Eat more broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc. In particular, broccoli sprouts as they have between 50 – 100 times the amount of sulforaphane than mature broccoli has.
Your environment and lifestyle have a huge impact on your health over the course of your life. The genes we inherit are influenced by our lifestyle and environment, they are not fixed in terms of the characteristics they determine. Simple decisions we make based around how we eat, move and think can cumulatively make a bit different over time by influencing what genes get switched on or off.
