by Jessica Bosari

Created on: March 06, 2009   Last Updated: March 16, 2009

Getting older is not necessarily a bad thing. The indignant fire and enthusiasm of youth give way to more balance and careful approaches to life. However, this precious wisdom comes with increased risk of disease, graying hair, and wrinkles. You can look and feel younger by eating the right foods.

You are probably familiar with the terms free radicals and antioxidants. When the body turns food to energy, free radicals result. The difference between free radicals and normal cells is a missing electron, an important part of the cell that helps it to work with other cells. When your body cells lose this electron, they go on a rampage, steeling electrons from other cells, creating more free radicals, and advancing the normal aging process.

Antioxidants give free radicals back the missing electron, pacifying them into healthy cells again. You should eat these foods raw whenever possible because heat can damage some of the nutrients.

Vitamin E fights heart disease, boosts immunity, and helps prevent skin cancer. Find this vital nutrient in sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, and peanut butter. To get more, try adding sunflower seeds to your salads.

Vitamin C is important in its own right and helps your body process vitamin E. Citrus fruits are a good source of vitamin C, are papaya, bell peppers, and broccoli. Try eating a grapefruit at breakfast, or be sure to include bell peppers in your salads.

You can also find flavonoids related to vitamin C in dark blue or purple plants. Think of apples, berries, and grapes, beets and eggplant. Tea, wine and dark chocolate also contain these vital nutrients. They help lower blood pressure, inhibit cancer, prevent macular degeneration, and protect skin from UV radiation. They can also help prevent Alzheimer's and memory loss.

Carotenoids are found chiefly in yellow, orange and red plants, but also in spinach. Carrots, butternut squash, apricots and some spices, like cayenne and turmeric are good sources. These super foods help prevent build up of cholesterol plaque in the arteries. Turmeric is an excellent seasoning to add to other healthy foods, like salmon.

Isothiocyanates are another important group of antioxidants. You can get them from broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, garlic, onion and mustard. An especially helpful antioxidant found in these foods is Selenium, which not only fights free radicals on its own, but it also speeds your body's capacity to make its own antioxidants. You can get more selenium by snacking on brazil nuts, or eating more snapper and shrimp.

Coenzyme Q10 is in lean beef, chicken breast and all kinds of fish. Some cholesterol controlling drugs can sap your body's CoQ10 supply. This powerful nutrient supports heart function, can help prevent memory loss and will help keep vitamin E stable in the body. Try pan searing tuna or salmon, cooking only the outer portion to get more of the fish's healthy nutrients.

Getting more of these powerful antiaging foods in your diet will help you to look as young as you feel.

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