Want to Stay Young? Just Eat Well With These Top Foods 27

Everyone knows that a healthy and balanced diet is important to keep your body, including your hair, skin and nails, in great condition. However, there are some super-foods which can not only keep you healthy, but which are just bursting with anti-aging ingredients, which can help you look and feel younger and just altogether more beautiful inside and out. It is surprising how many of these foods are consumed by celebrities. Even though they have the cash to splash out on treatments and surgery, even they seem to prefer the natural options to help keep them young and beautiful rather than resorting to injections and surgery.

Here Are Seven Anti-Aging Food and Drinks Which Will Give You A Boost of Youthfulness

This is surely the king of all super drinks - green tea comes top of the anti-aging list. Amongst its qualities, it helps regulate blood pressure, lowers blood sugar and cholesterol, it boosts the immune system protecting you against infections, and it can possibly help protect against certain types of cancer. It can also raise the metabolic rate slightly, which helps you burn extra pounds - Courtney Cox and Courtney Love are both fans of the drink. If you don't like the taste of green tea, try white tea which has all the same benefits, and even more.

Don't think boiled green cabage, but crispy healthy stir fried greens, flavoured with herbs and spices. Spinach is great with pepper and a light dressing of olive oil and boosts your immune system. Other greens like kale and collard greens are high in folate which helps prevent DNA and blood vessel damage - ie it looks after your circulatory system, protecting against high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease and dementia.

Yes, this is in the list really because of its high cocoa content. Cocoa is rich in antioxidants called flavinoids which help preserve healthy function of the blood vessels. Look for the over 70% cocoa bars and eat around one square a day.

Soy products like tofu are a great source of protein and an alternative to red meat and dairy as they have little or no fat. The Japanese diet promotes longevity, and soya is a staple of their diet, it helps to keep down cholesterol.

Eat lots of low fat youghurt, as it is really full of "good" bacteria. Ignore some of the advertisements which promote certain brands, you can buy a big pot of plain old yoghurt and it will contain the "good" bacteria which will help regulate your immune system to help out your gut. Yoghurt is also a great source of calcium which helps keep bones strong.

If you are a white wine drinker you might want to think of switching to red wine, as it is full of anti-aging elements including antioxidants, minerals, polyphenols and resveratrol. Yes, resveratrol, its a funny word, but its a great super food as it helps increase your good cholesterol levels, helps women during the menopause by reducing the risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis - the suggested intake is around a glass a day.

Believe it or not after all that has been written about drinking enough water, people are still not doing it. Increasing your fluid intake will increase energy levels, aid digestion, boost your skins radiance and altogether up your anti-aging armoury. Drink little and often throughout the day - if possible keep a water bottle with you and sip at it regularly. Increasing your intake of fruit and vegetables will also increase your water intake too.