Foods To Make You Look Younger

Celebrating more birthdays means you might be a few wrinkles richer, but it also comes with a poorer ability to build muscle and stay ripped. One major reason for this is a depletion of your key hormone levels. In fact, research at the Noor Clinic in Pakistan found that as you age, your growth hormone levels deplete naturally which affects your metabolism, bone density, cardiovascular function and muscle mass.

Even if you’re a young stud, it’s worth making sure your naturally occurring growth-hormone levels are peaking because they can help you heal faster and get leaner.

These are the key foods you should be eating every day to ensure you’re bite-for-bite younger.

The mushroom effect

There’s a complex interplay between vitamin D, insulin-like growth factor 1 and growth hormones. The simple explanation is that the more vitamin D you have, the higher your growth hormone levels are likely to be, and vice versa, found research in Clinical Endocrinology.

The most common methods of increasing your vitamin D levels are by lying in the sunshine or eating oily fish; but it’s worth including more Portabello mushrooms in your diet and even getting a serving of caviar with your sushi, since these are the lesser-known rich sources of this vital age-defying vitamin.

Get doped up

Dopamine is one of your hardest working neurotransmitters and acts like a radio broadcast transmitting signals between your nerves. This isn’t an interaction you’ll ever be able to see and appreciate, but the higher your dopamine levels, the higher your growth hormone levels, found a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Fortunately, lean-eating staples like fish, chicken, cheese, eggs and cottage cheese are rich in dopamine, so stick to eating those; although you can also fortify your levels by adding in lesser-eaten foods like watermelon and beetroot. Plus, they’re sweet additions to any BBQ.

– RELATED: Can Fitness Help You Stay Young? –

Pig out at your peril

Though these foods are good for you, always eat with moderation, even if you’re on holiday with an all-inclusive buffet at your fingertips. Research in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that just a few days’ overeating reduces your plasma growth-hormone levels by roughly 80%, prior to any weight gain at all. Learn to stop when you’re full and you’ll look younger for it.

Get your wobble on

Arginine is a popular sport supplement taken to make your blood vessels relax so you get a bigger pump. Research in the Current Opinion on Clinical Nutrition Metabolism and Care found that combining arginine with exercise is a very potent stimulator of growth hormone release.

Fortunately, it’s rich in all the usual healthy proteins like fish, chicken and beef, but the highest levels are found in gelatin and crabs, so make sure you treat yourself to a serving of those each day – although probably not at the same time if you want the meal to be appetising.

Also, jelly before bed could be a near-perfect low-calorie growth hormone releaser.

A call for kelp

The secret behind Japanese longevity and youthfulness could be due to the foods they eat in great quantity, namely seaweed and soya products. These are the richest sources of tyrosine, and research in The Journal of Biological Chemistry found that this amino acid helps improve your levels of growth hormone.

You might get your sushi wrapped in yaki nori (seaweed), but for an extra tyrosine fix, reach for an additional seaweed salad when you’re kicking back at your local sushi train.

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