Longevity scientist claims this one breakfast helped him reverse his biological age by 15 years
If you're the type of person who loves to have pancakes or cereal for breakfast, then I have bad news for you.
Breakfast is thought to be the most important meal of the day and people are often encouraged to eat it. From cereal and waffles to eggs and bacon, there's so much choice when it comes to your first meal.
For me, I'm a sucker for an almond croissant or some fluffy pancakes. However, there's a certain type of breakfast that's been proven to slow down the ageing process, so much so that one scientist says that his biological age has been reversed by 15 years.
That scientist is Dr. Eric Verdin, the CEO and president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Now 68 years old, Verdin has spent the last decade 'optimizing' his health and has made changes to both his diet and lifestyle.
He follows the Mediterranean diet, something that has long been raved about by experts for its health benefits. In fact, it's been suggested that those who follow such a diet could add an extra decade to their lives.
The diet's made up of plant-based foods, healthy fats, and moderate amounts of lean proteins, fish, and dairy.
"When you look at populations that are on this type of diet, they really are the healthy ones," Verdin said of it.
Going on to speak about breakfast specifically, Verdin warned, as per Business Insider: "The worst breakfast you can possibly imagine is your sort of cereal bowl with a glass of orange juice because this is essentially a bowl of sugar, sugar, sugar."
So what does he eat to make his biological age 15 years younger than his actual age? Verdin typically eats eggs, avocado, and salmon with wholemeal bread for breakfast. He'll also often have olive oil on his bread instead of butter.
READ MORE:
DOCTOR REVEALS SIMPLE LIFESTYLE CHANGE THAT CAN 'REVERSE AGING'
Eggs and salmon are great for healthy sources of fat and protein (which will help you feel fuller for long), while eggs and wholemeal bread are a source of fiber that feeds the 'good' bacteria in your gut.
Going on to reveal why a savory breakfast is a better alternative to a sweet one, Verdin said: "Breakfast should be savory. So no pastries, no orange juice, no fruity yogurt. What it does, it sets you up for the whole day of bouncing up and down with your blood sugar."
If your blood sugar levels are going up and down throughout the day, you're more likely to experience energy crashes and cravings.
Maybe that's why I'm always falling asleep at my desk at 3pm...
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vogue
11 hours ago
- Vogue
Ricotta Is The Most Underrated High-Protein Cheese
There are so many varieties of ricotta cheese: it can be made from cow, sheep, goat, or buffalo milk, and is available in salted, baked, and smoked versions. Delicious and versatile, it's also an incredibly underrated health food. When you consider the nutritional properties of ricotta, you'll find that it's one of the healthiest cheeses you can eat, right up there with the ever-popular and high-protein cottage cheese. What is ricotta? Believe it or not, ricotta doesn't technically count as a cheese. It's actually a dairy byproduct that's been eaten since the Bronze Age, and is made from whey—the liquid that remains after making other cheeses. Makers will then heat the whey and add acid, which causes flakes to form on the surface. These flakes are ricotta. Mild in taste, ricotta is typically light, with a creamy texture. Why is ricotta a healthy choice? According to the British Heart Foundation, ricotta is low in salt and fat, with only 10% fat, of which six percent is saturated. The protein content will depend on whether it's made with whole milk, semi-skimmed milk, or is low-fat, but typically, in 100g, you'll get: 7 to 8g of protein in whole milk ricotta 8 to 9g of protein in semi-skimmed-milk ricotta 10 to 11g of protein in low-fat or fat-free ricotta Plus, ricotta contains a plethora of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin K and calcium, both of which are beneficial for bone health and blood clotting. The benefits of eating ricotta cheese It's easily digestible It has a low-glycemic index, meaning it won't spike your blood sugar It contains little fat compared to other fresh cheeses like feta, mozzarella, and mascarpone It's low in calories (140 calories per 100g) It's rich in protein, which can help with muscle building and recovery It's beneficial for bone health thanks to the calcium and vitamin K It's rich in vitamin B 12 , which supports a healthy metabolism, red blood cell formation, and good nervous system health , which supports a healthy metabolism, red blood cell formation, and good nervous system health Due to the high-protein content, it's a satiating food to eat Because ricotta contains both whey protein and phosphorus, it can help in regulating blood pressure Is there anyone who should avoid eating ricotta? Unless you've been told by your doctor to avoid eating food with the nutritional profile of ricotta, there's only one group who should avoid it: those with lactose intolerance. Even though ricotta is a dairy byproduct, it still contains lactose and therefore wouldn't be appropriate for those with intolerances or allergies. 6 ways to eat ricotta Spoon fresh ricotta into a bowl and top with berries, fresh fruit, and nuts for a satiating, high-protein breakfast. Mix ricotta with oats and a little milk/water and leave to soak overnight. Add chopped fresh fruit and coconut flakes in the morning for a delicious, protein-rich overnight oats breakfast. For an easy dessert, drizzle honey or maple syrup, with a sprinkling of cinnamon, over a small bowl of ricotta. Make a protein mousse by blending ricotta with cocoa and a couple of dates. Spread on sourdough, rice cakes, or corn cakes and top with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and cherry tomatoes. Use in homemade pasta sauces, like the recipe below. Ricotta and sun-dried tomato pasta Serves: 2
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business Insider
Forget 'biological age' tests — longevity experts are using an $800 under-the-radar blood test to measure aging in real-time
Doctors and scientists are using a blood plasma test to study longevity. The test measures proteins and can tell you about your organ health. This field of proteomics could one day help detect diseases like cancer before they start. Should you have that second cup of coffee? How about a little wine with dinner? And, is yogurt really your superfood? Scientists are getting closer to offering consumers a blood test that could help people make daily decisions about how to eat, drink, and sleep that are more perfectly tailored to their unique biology. The forthcoming tests could also help shape what are arguably far more important health decisions, assessing whether your brain is aging too fast, if your kidneys are OK, or if that supplement or drug you're taking is actually doing any good. It's called an organ age test, more officially (and scientifically) known as "proteomics" — and it's the next hot " biological age" marker that researchers are arguing could be better than all the rest. "If I could just get one clock right now, I'd want to get that clock, and I'd like to see it clinically available in older adults," cardiologist Eric Topol, author of the recent bestseller "Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity," told Business Insider. Topol said armed with organ age test results, people could become more proactive stewards of their own health, before it's too late. "When we have all these layers of data, it's a whole new day for preventing the disease," Topol said. "You see the relationship with women's hormones. You see the relationship with food and alcohol. You don't ever get that with genes." A test like this isn't available to consumers just yet, but it's already being used by researchers at elite universities and high-end longevity clinics. They hope it can become a tool any doctor could use to assess patient health in the next few years. A startup called Vero, which was spun out of some foundational proteomics research at Stanford University, is hoping to beta test a proteomics product for consumers this year. "Knowing your oldest organ isn't the point; changing the trajectory is," Vero co-founder and CEO Paul Coletta told a crowd gathered at the Near Future Summit in Malibu, California, last month. Coletta told Business Insider Vero's not interested in doing "wealthcare." The company plans to make its test available to consumers for around $200 a pop, at scale. Their draw only requires one vial of blood. Why measuring proteins could be the key to better personalized medicine The big promise of proteomics is that it could be a more precise real-time tool for tracking important but subtle changes that emerge inside each of us as we age. Genetic testing can measure how our bodies are built, spotting vulnerabilities in a person's DNA that might predispose them to health issues. Standard clinical measurements like a person's weight, blood pressure, or cholesterol readings are a useful proxy for potential health issues. Then there are the increasingly popular "biological age" tests available to consumers at home. Most of those look at "epigenetic changes" — how environmental factors affect our gene expression. Proteomics does something different and new. It measures the product that our bodies make based on all those genetic and environmental inputs: proteins. It offers a live assessment of how your body is running, not just how it's programmed. If validated in the next few years, these tests could become key in early disease detection and prevention. They could help influence all kinds of medical decisions, from big ones like "What drugs should I take?" to little ones like "How does my body respond to caffeine or alcohol?" Elite longevity clinics already use proteomics Some high-end longevity clinics are already forging ahead using proteomics to guide clinical recommendations, albeit cautiously. Dr. Evelyne Bischof, a longevity physician who treats patients worldwide, said she uses proteomic information to guide some of the lifestyle interventions she recommends to her patients. She may suggest a more polyphenol-rich diet to someone who seems to have high inflammation and neuroinflammation based on proteomic test results, or may even suggest they do a little more cognitive training, based on what proteomics says about how their brain is aging. Dr. Andrea Maier, a professor of medicine and functional aging at the National University of Singapore, told BI she uses this measurement all the time in her longevity clinics. For her, it's just a research tool, but if the results of her ongoing studies are decent, she hopes to be able to use it clinically in a few years' time. "We want to know what kind of 'ageotype' a person is, so what type of aging personality are you, not from a mental perspective, but from a physical perspective," Maier said. "It's really discovery at this moment in time, and at the edge of being clinically meaningful." "Once we have that validated tool, we will just add it to our routine testing and we can just tick the box and say, 'I also want to know if this person is a cardiac ager, or a brain ager, or a muscle ager' because now we have a sensitive parameter — protein — which can be added," Maier said. The two big-name proteomics tests are Olink and SOMAscan. For now, their high-end screening costs around $400-$800 per patient. "I'm losing lots of money at the moment because of proteomics for clinical research!" Maier said. Proteomics could soon help predict who's most likely to get certain cancers, fast-tracking both prevention and treatment Top aging researchers at Stanford and Harvard are pushing the field forward, racing to publish more novel insights about the human proteome. The latest findings from Harvard aging researcher Vadim Gladyshev's lab, published earlier this year, suggest that as we age, each person may even stand to benefit from a slightly different antiaging grocery list. To research this idea, Gladyshev looked at proteins in the blood of more than 50,000 people in the UK, all participants in the UK Biobank who are being regularly tested and studied to learn more about their long-term health. He tracked their daily habits and self-reported routines like diet, occupation, and prescriptions, comparing those details to how each patient's organs were aging. He discovered some surprising connections. Yogurt eating, generally speaking, tended to be associated with better intestinal aging but had relatively no benefit to the arteries. White wine drinking, on the other hand, seemed to potentially confer some small benefit to the arteries while wreaking havoc on the gut. "The main point is that people age in different ways in different organs, and therefore we need to find personalized interventions that would fit that particular person," Gladyshev told BI. "Through measuring proteins, you assess the age of different organs and you say, 'OK, this person is old in this artery.'" For now, there's too much noise in the data to do more. Dr. Pal Pacher, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism who studies organ aging and injuries, told BI that proteomics is simply not ready for clinical use yet. There's just too much noise in the data. But he imagines a future where a more sophisticated protein clock could help link up which people may be most vulnerable to diseases like early cancer, kidney disease, and more. (A California-based proteomics company called Seer announced last weekend that it is partnering with Korea University to study whether proteomics can help more quickly diagnose cancer in young people in their 20s and 30s.) "How beautiful could it be in the future?" Maier said. "Instead of three hours of clinical investigation, I would have a tool which guides me much, much better, with more validity towards interventions."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
10 foods that may reduce your risk of developing dementia
Dementia is the health condition that almost half of us fear the most. So it stands to reason that we're constantly looking for ways to avoid developing it. Alongside making lifestyle changes, there are other steps you can take that may lower your risk. Including, tweaking your diet. According to a new study, people aged 45 to 75 who followed the MIND diet (more on that in a moment) were less likely to develop Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The research, conducted by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, found that the closer people stuck to the diet, the more their risk dropped. Even small improvements to diet over time were linked to an average 9% drop in dementia risk. And people who improved their adherence to the diet over 10 years – including those who didn't follow it closely at first – had a 25% lower risk of dementia than those whose adherence dropped. "Our findings confirm that healthy diet patterns in mid to late life and their improvement over time may prevent Alzheimer's and related dementias," said Dr Song-Yi Park, associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. If you've heard of the Mediterranean diet or DASH diet before, you're already halfway there. MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. A bit of a mouthful, yes, but it's really just a blend of two diets already linked to better heart and brain health. It's not about counting calories but building habits over time and cutting back on things that aren't as brain-friendly: processed snacks, sugary drinks and alcohol. The focus is on everyday brain foods – including leafy greens, berries, nuts, and olive oil – that scientists say can help protect brain cells, improve memory, and reduce inflammation. According to Alzheimer's Research UK, this way of eating has been linked to a range of health benefits, including improved brain health. So, if you're wondering what to actually eat, here are the key foods to focus on, plus easy ways to get more of them in your five-a-day. Eating your greens might be one of the simplest ways to support your brain health. Studies have found that eating one or two servings of leafy greens daily, such as spinach, kale, and Brussels sprouts, can slow down age-related cognitive decline. In fact, older adults who regularly included these vegetables in their diet performed on memory tests as if they were 11 years younger than those who ate them less frequently. Tips for eating more: Add spinach or kale to smoothies, wilt and stir into soups or omelettes, or enjoy in a fresh salad – the MIND diet recommends aiming for at least six servings a week. Research shows that fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids (the pigments behind those bright orange, red and yellow colours) could be linked to better brain health. That includes things like carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, red peppers, tomatoes, papaya and apricots, as well as greens like spinach and kale. Tips for eating more: Add roasted veg to grain bowls, use them to bulk out chillis, curries and ragus, or keep chopped peppers on hand for easy snacking. A variety of veg daily is the goal. Blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are packed with antioxidants and flavonoids (natural plant chemicals found in many fruits, vegetables and spices) that may help protect brain cells from damage. They've also got the bonus of being naturally lower in sugar than many other fruits. Tips for eating more: Throw them into porridge, sprinkle on pancakes, mix with yoghurt or blend into a smoothie. Try to include them at least twice a week. Fatty fish like salmon, tuna and sardines are some of the best sources of omega-3 fats, especially one called DHA – a type of fat that plays a key role in keeping the brain healthy. Our bodies can't make it on their own, so getting enough through food really matters. Tips for eating more: Bake salmon for dinner, rustle up a tuna panini, or top toast with sardines, lemon and herbs. One or more servings a week are recommended; just skip the frying, as this can increase the fat content. Walnuts, almonds, lentils, flax seeds and soybeans are small but mighty. They're rich in healthy fats, vitamin E, B vitamins, choline, magnesium and zinc, all nutrients known to support long-term brain health. Tips for eating more: Snack on a small handful, stir lentils into stews or sprinkle seeds onto yoghurt or porridge – five servings a week is MIND's recommendation. Wholegrains like oats, brown rice, quinoa and barley are high in fibre and B vitamins, and may help reduce inflammation in the brain. They also help keep your energy and focus steady – a win for memory and concentration. Tips for eating more: Start your day with porridge or overnight oats, and switch to wholemeal versions of rice, pasta and bread. Aim for three servings a day. Olive oil is one of the key ingredients in the MIND diet, and for good reason. It's high in healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and research has linked it to better brain health and a lower risk of dementia-related death. Tips for eating more: Use it for roasting veg, drizzling on salads or as a base for homemade dressings – ideally as your main added fat. Beans are an underrated brain food. They're full of fibre, plant protein and nutrients like folate, which some UK research has linked to a reduced risk of cognitive decline. They also help keep blood sugar steady, which is important for long-term brain health. Tips for eating more: Add to soups, stews or salads, or mash into dips and spreads. Aim for four or more bean-based meals a week. Lean meats such as chicken and turkey provide protein without red meat's high saturated fat content – something the MIND diet recommends limiting. Eating poultry a couple of times a week has been linked to a lower risk of memory loss later in life. Tips for eating more: Grill chicken in wraps or cook turkey mince in your usual pasta sauce. The MIND diet recommends two servings a week. Okay, it's not officially part of the MIND diet, but we all deserve a treat! Studies say a small amount of dark chocolate may offer brain benefits, especially varieties with at least 70% cocoa. Tips for eating more: Enjoy a square or two, ideally paired with nuts to slow sugar release. Or mix it into your porridge for a morning sugar bump. Read more on health: What is resting heart rate and why is it important for your health? (The Telegraph, 7-min read) Five lifestyle choices that cut Alzheimer's risk (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read) 6 benefits of vitamin D from slowing down ageing to boosting immunity (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
