It's official! Snacking on these foods and drinking this tea can slow down ageing

While immortality is humankind’s ultimate goal, the real goal for most of us is to age with grace, strength, and health. Aging is a natural and beautiful part of life. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wrinkles, laugh lines, or silver strands. But what if a few simple additions to your daily routine could help you with healthier aging? Scientists have found a hack to age better by adding a few things to your diet. A new study found that adding a certain tea and some fruits can help with healthier aging.

A study by researchers from Edith Cowan University, Queen’s University Belfast, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that sipping a cup of black tea might do just the trick when it comes to healthy aging. Rich in flavonoids, which are natural compounds with powerful antioxidant properties, black tea has been linked to a reduced risk of age-related health issues, including inflammation and cardiovascular disease. Your evening cup of tea might be doing more than just warming your hands and soul, it could be helping you age better, too!

The researchers also found that berries, citrus fruits, and apples could also help to lower the risk of key components of unhealthy ageing, including frailty, impaired physical function ,and poor mental health.

“The goal of medical research is not just to help people live longer but to ensure they stay healthy for as long as possible,” ECU Adjunct Lecturer Dr Nicola Bondonno said in a statement.

“We know from previous research that people who have a higher flavonoid intake tend to live longer, and they are also less likely to get any of the major chronic diseases such as dementia, diabetes, or heart disease. Our research shows that people who consume more flavonoids tend to age better,” the researcher added.

To understand the effects of black tea and the fruits in healthy aging, the researchers analysed data from 62,743 women and 23,687 men over 24 years. The findings were surprising. They found that women who consumed more flavonoids had a 15% lower risk of frailty, a 12% lower risk of impaired physical function, and a 12% lower risk of poor mental health compared to the ordinary ones. These effects were visible in men as well, however, they got slightly lower results, and the higher flavonoid consumption was still linked to a lower risk of poor mental health.

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“Flavonoids are well known for reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, supporting blood vessel health, and even helping to maintain skeletal muscle mass all of which are important for preventing frailty and maintaining physical function and mental health as we age,” Professor Aedin Cassidy, senior author of the study from Queens University Belfast statesd.

Cassidy also emphasized that eating flavonoid-rich foods such as berries, apples, red wine, oranges, and tea regularly could help individuals age healthily. This is because the flavonoids reduce the risk of frailty, physical decline, and poor mental health.

“We found that participants who increased their intake of flavonoid-rich food by three servings a day had a 6% to 11% lower risk across all three of the ageing outcomes in females, and a 15% lower risk of poor mental health in males. Overall, these findings underscore the potential for simple dietary modifications to impact overall quality of life and contribute to the optimisation of healthy aging,” Prof. Eric Rimm from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health concluded.