10 Anti-Aging Foods That May Help With Longevity

Our parents were right: We really are what we eat, especially in terms of our health. If we consume a diet filled with highly processed foods, our health will likely decrease while we watch our waistlines increase. 

If we instead focus on eating whole foods filled with the essential nutrients we need, we can look forward to a longer, healthier life. Some foods even have research that supports their ability to help us age biologically slower. 

We’ll give you the top 10 list of foods that can help you achieve a longer, healthier life. 

Top 10 Foods To Help You Live Longer

Don’t call them superfoods — call them the ultimate biohacks. These foods are packed with essential nutrients, making them perfect for establishing a healthy diet and ensuring you get the ingredients you need to thrive. 

“Essential” means our bodies need the nutrients to thrive but cannot readily make them on their own. As such, they have to come from our food or supplements. 

These foods contain some of the most researched essentials that our bodies use to support their cells, the very foundations of our health. Adding them to your daily diet can improve your ability to live longer and healthier. 

1. Berries

Specifically, blueberries and raspberries. Not only are these delicious, they’re loaded with antioxidants. 

Antioxidants protect cells against oxidation, a process that can cause cells to become damaged and replicate damage to new cells. Antioxidants can help reduce the body’s inflammatory response. Berries are also a source of probiotics and essential vitamins. 

2. Green Tea

According to experts, replacing one cup of coffee with green tea could help you live longer. Like berries, green tea is packed with antioxidants and is a more sustainable source of caffeine, making it an overall better choice for your afternoon pick-me-up instead of your favorite cup of joe. 

3. Fermented Foods

Pickles, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, sourdough bread, and apple cider vinegar are all examples of fermented foods. These foods contain living, healthy bacteria that act as probiotics to restore levels of bacteria in the gut. They aid in digestion and protect the gut, which has connections to the brain and skin. 

4. Protein

Protein, the building block of numerous types of tissues, is an essential macronutrient along with carbohydrates and fat. Protein is needed throughout all stages of life to help repair and retain muscle tissue and even help prevent skin wrinkling. 

Just be sure to choose your protein wisely. Source your protein from plants like beans, legumes, and tofu, and choose lean meat sources like chicken and fish.

5. Tomatoes

A surprising source of vitamin C, tomatoes are a great source of antioxidants as well as vitamin C. The body uses vitamin C in the synthesis of collagen, which helps support full, supple skin. Tomatoes also contain lycopene, which helps protect the skin from UV rays. 

6. Greens

Leafy greens (the darker, the better) are rich sources of vitamins and nutrients and also contain high levels of fiber needed to protect the colon. If you aren’t used to consuming a lot of high-fiber foods, start slowly to avoid gastrointestinal discomfort. 

7. Bean and Legumes

Want to know what one food was consistent across almost all Blue Zones? It was beans. The residents of these communities where people consistently live to be healthy octogenarians all consumed at least one serving of beans per day. 

Beans are an excellent plant-based source of fiber and protein and also have vitamins and minerals that vary depending on the type of bean you consume. 

8. Nuts

A handful of nuts per day may be enough to keep you in a state of superior health. Researchers discovered a link between people who consume nuts daily and longer lifespans compared to people who do not consume nuts. 

But be warned, nuts should be consumed in small quantities. Although they are loaded with essential fats and nutrients, they are high in calories and can easily pack on 200-300 calories per innocent little handful. 

9. Dark Chocolate

In addition to being delicious, dark chocolate is a source of antioxidants, helping fight those pesky free radicals that harm our cells. Dark chocolate also contains magnesium, which is essential for helping regulate sleep and aids in muscle and nerve function. 

The darker the chocolate, the less sugar you’ll consume, so opt for dark chocolate that is at least 70% cacao to reduce your added sugar intake. 

10. Pentadecanoic Acid

Rounding out our list is a fatty acid that has been gaining a lot of attention lately. Recently discovered by Navy researchers studying longevity in dolphins, this odd-chain, saturated fatty acid is making waves in the longevity community. 

This is due to its establishment as essential, its ability to strengthen cells, and its role in addressing 6 out of the 12 hallmarks of aging. It’s an important molecule for our long-term health and is worth a deep dive. 

What Is Pentadecanoic Acid?

Known as C15:0 for short, this fatty acid helps support our bodies by addressing health at a cellular level. C15:0 reverses cellular aging by:

• Strengthening cells by 80%. As we age, cell membranes become weak and cause our cells to lose their shape and function. C15:0 integrates into cell membranes to keep them strong.
  
  
• Improving mitochondrial function and increasing ATP levels within cells by 350%. Sluggish mitochondria can translate to less cell function and the release of more reactive oxygen species (ROS). Not only does C15:0 increase energy output, but it also decreases ROS by up to 45%.
  
  
• Lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol. The cholesterol number your doctor would like to lower just got easier to tackle with the help of C15:0. Independent studies have linked it to better cholesterol regulation.
  
  
• Activating AMPK to clean up damaged cells and regulate glucose uptake.
  
  
• Calming the immune system. C15:0 helps calm and lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines, a key driver in the aging process.
  
  
• Activate PPARs to help restore homeostasis to functions like mood, sleep, and appetite.
  
  
• Improving liver enzymes.
  
  
• Improving the gut microbiome.

C15:0 is essential, and it’s estimated that most people around the globe aren’t getting enough. Nearly one in three people around the world have C15:0 levels that are simply too low. Getting enough is important because a deficiency in C15:0 can lead to unhealthy, fragile cells. 

Essential Levels of C15:0

Researchers agree that optimal levels of C15:0 are between 0.2% and 0.4% of a person’s total fatty acid count. Levels need to fall within this range to protect against a deficiency in C15:0, known as Cellular Fragility Syndrome. 

A study that followed the residents of one Blue Zone in Sardinia, Italy, showed that residents had much higher C15:0 levels, at about 0.64% of their total fatty acid counts. If you aren’t sure where your levels are, you can ask your doctor to perform a blood test, or you can click here and order an easy-to-use, at-home testing kit. 

This kit requires a finger-prick blood sample that can tell you how much C15:0 you have floating around in your body. 

Cellular Fragility Syndrome

Cellular Fragility Syndrome may be impacting as many as 1 in 3 people worldwide. It’s important because Cellular Fragility Syndrome is a condition in which cells become fragile and susceptible to disease and death. 

It is also linked with a new type of cell death known as ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is consistently linked to negative health outcomes, like type 2 diabetes, NAFLD, cardiovascular disease, and premature aging. 

Thankfully, increasing your levels of C15:0 not only fixes Cellular Fragility Syndrome, it helps pay dividends in your long-term health and gives your cells a fighting chance against aging. 

How Can I Increase My Levels of C15:0?

You can find C15:0 in food, but only in trace amounts. It hides out primarily in full-fat dairy products, like whole milk and full-fat butter. 

Increasing your intake of these foods may not be the best way to level up your C15:0 for several reasons. Keep in mind that you’d have to consume a lot of whole milk to reach the levels of C15:0 needed to gain the health benefits. 

Absorption Issues

In milk (and other foods), C15:0 is attached to branches of lipids called triacylglycerides, aka triglycerides. That means our gut has to use digestive enzymes to break down these triacylglycerides to release C15:0 as a free fatty acid. Once C15:0 is released, it is ready to be absorbed. These multiple steps can make our absorption of C15:0 from foods less efficient.

Bad Fats

While the good C15:0 fatty acid is present in whole-fat dairy products in trace levels, there are much higher levels of 'bad' even-chain saturated fatty acids that continue to be associated with poorer health. That is probably why studies evaluating the effects of milk on our health are mixed (some say dairy fat is bad for us, while others say it is good for us). 

Excess Calories and Sugar

Whole-fat dairy products provide about 150 calories and 12 grams of sugar per eight-ounce cup. The calories in whole-fat milk likely explain why a large-scale recent study showed that adults who drink more dairy milk are more likely to have a higher body weight. 

It Isn’t Vegan Friendly

Obviously, cow’s milk isn’t vegan-friendly. If you are attempting to avoid animal products, consuming milk is off the table. Just so you know, plant-based milk is completely void of C15:0. 

A solution is to get your necessary C15:0 from a supplement, like fatty15. Since C15:0 was discovered as an essential nutrient in 2020, over 100 peer-reviewed studies have been published describing the health benefits of this molecule to our long-term health. 

Eat Your Way to Health

In addition to getting plenty of exercise and eating a balanced diet, taking fatty15 once per day is an easy way to support your long-term health and wellness. Adding antioxidant-rich, nutrient-dense foods to your diet and coupling them with fatty15 can help you improve your health span and live a longer, healthier life.

Sources:

Can Certain Foods Fight The Aging Process? | Piedmont Healthcare

Food Guidelines | Blue Zones

Eating nuts linked to healthier, longer life | Harvard Health

Efficacy of dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acid pentadecanoic acid parallels broad associated health benefits in humans: could it be essential? | Scientific Reports

A review of odd-chain fatty acid metabolism and the role of pentadecanoic Acid (c15:0) and heptadecanoic Acid (c17:0) in health and disease | PubMed

Effect of an Asian-adapted Mediterranean diet and pentadecanoic acid on fatty liver disease: the TANGO randomized controlled trial | ScienceDirect

Pentadecanoic Acid (C15:0), an Essential Fatty Acid, Shares Clinically Relevant Cell-Based Activities with Leading Longevity-Enhancing Compounds

Circulating fatty acids and endocannabinoidome-related mediator profiles associated to human longevity | GeroScience

The Cellular Stability Hypothesis: Evidence of Ferroptosis and Accelerated Aging-Associated Diseases as Newly Identified Nutritional Pentadecanoic Acid (C15:0) Deficiency Syndrome

Dairy consumption and overweight and obesity: a systematic review of prospective cohort studies - Louie - 2011

Resources | Discoverc15