The Anti-Aging Diet

How it keeps you young: When it involves avoiding pathology, metal gets all the praise. however another major player is naphthoquinone. "New studies suggest K will improve bone density and lower the chance of hip fracture," says Katherine Tucker, PhD, director of biological process medical specialty at the economist faculty of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Bean Town. bifoliate greens square measure a chief supply — one cup of recent spinach provides quite one and a 0.5 times your daily demand.

As well as safeguarding your skeleton, spinach keeps your eyes sparkling and clear. Years of exposure to daylight will injury the middle of your eye's membrane, resulting in degeneration and visual impairment. however spinach is that the darling supply of carotenoid and xanthophyl, nutrients that form up a part of the membrane. There, they take in harmful light-weight before it will do accumulative injury.

For an additional anti-aging food , top a spinach salad with strawberries. They are rich in plant chemicals, polyphenols, which keep you quick-witted. "When we start to get older, our brain cells become like an old married couple — they don't talk to each other very much anymore," says James Joseph, PhD, director of the Neuroscience Lab at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, also at Tufts. "Polyphenols get the conversation flowing again by promoting signals between cells, encouraging them to communicate and enhancing memory."

Use it in: Zesty Strawberry Spinach Salad

Whisk together 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Drizzle over 4 cups raw baby spinach and 2 cups sliced strawberries. Toss and top with 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese. Serves 4. 110 calories; 8g fat (2g sat.).

More spinach ideas:
* Swap spinach for lettuce on your next sandwich.
* Fold thawed, frozen spinach into low-fat ricotta, stuff into pasta shells, and bake.
* Add shredded spinach leaves to canned vegetable or lentil soup.