Feeling thirsty?
Though there’s no way to pause the ageing process or turn back the clock, there are ways to give your body the nutrients it needs to look and perform at its best, whatever your age.
By making smarter choices, you can add years to your life and hold onto your youthful looks for a while longer, whether you’re in your thirties or you’re heading towards your sixties.
Below, we’ve put together six mouth-watering anti-ageing drinks that can slow down the ageing process and keep those pesky fine lines and wrinkles at bay for a while longer…
Water
Let’s start with the obvious one: water. Not only is water essential to maintaining your skin’s natural moisture and elasticity, but it helps to regulate body temperature through sweating.
Without enough water in your diet, your skin will appear duller and your wrinkles and lines will be more prominent. Water can plump up the skin and keep you looking fresh-faced, “filling in” those wrinkles and pores that can cause you to appear older than your years.
The key here is hydrating your skin from the inside and the outside.
As well as drinking lots of water (dieticians recommend eight glasses or two litres per day, at a minimum), you should eat water-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables like watermelon and peaches, and hydrate your skin from the outside with an effective moisturiser.
Avoid hot showers which dry out your skin, and wear a moisturiser with SPF to protect against the sun. Even in the winter, harmful UV rays can cause lasting damage to your skin.
Grapefruit juice
Start off your mornings with a refreshing glass of pink grapefruit juice.
Research from the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics shows that grapefruit contains lycopene, a carotenoid known to keep your skin smooth. Vitamins in the fruit (and the drink) can stimulate collagen production, which can increase the plumpness and suppleness of your skin, improve skin elasticity, and reduce some of the signs of ageing.
Because grapefruit juice contains antioxidants such as retinol, it is also a great drink for evening-out your skin tone, treating skin pigmentation and renewing damaged skin. The drink also contains minerals like potassium, which can smoothen wrinkles and protect against harmful UV rays, though you should still apply sunscreen as part of your skin regime.
Green tea
Green tea has been used for centuries in the Far East, famed for its health-giving benefits, and in recent years it’s become something of a superfood. Today, celebrities and dieticians sip green tea all day long as it’s full of antioxidants that can help to reduce inflammation.
Thanks to its anti-inflammatory and anti-wrinkle properties, green tea helps to protect the skin around the eyes from pigmentation, sagging, and wrinkling, whilst scientists have found green tea can reduce skin damage, delaying the ageing of collagen and reducing wrinkles.
If that wasn’t enough, new research has found that EGCG, the green tea polyphenol, can protect skin from UVB rays, preventing skin ageing, and it even offers cancer-preventative effects, suppressing cancer tumour growth in several high-profile studies around the world.
Beetroot juice
Another anti-ageing juice to tick off your bucket list is beetroot juice, which can aid circulation to the brain and help to prevent or slow down the effects of conditions such as dementia.
That’s thanks to the most powerful ingredient found in beetroot, nitrate, which is known to delay cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, though research on this link is ongoing.
If you’re planning on making beetroot juice from scratch, hold onto the leafy greens. They contain lutein, which can protect your body from free radicals and fight against wrinkles.
Milk
According to scientists, we lose up to one per cent of our lean muscle mass every year from our early thirties, and our muscle strength can decline up to 15% every decade. We also lose bone, which can cause our face shape to change and lead to sagging and wrinkling.
Drinking milk is a great way to add more amino acids to your diet, the building blocks of muscle. One of the most important amino acids, leucine, can be found in milk, whilst calcium can keep your bones strong and slow down the loss of bone which changes the face shape.
If you don’t fancy chugging down a glass of milk on a morning, consider blending some into your favourite dishes (think sauces and soups). Lactose intolerant or vegan? Opt for calcium and leucine tablets to ensure your body gets the nutrients it needs to perform at its best.
Cocoa
Treat yourself to a cup of warm cocoa before bed. Cocoa is known to improve skin elasticity and the appearance of crow’s feet, and because it’s packed with flavanols, it can dilate blood vessels and allow blood to circulate more freely around your body, keeping your skin healthy.
Research has also found that cocoa improves blood flow to the brain, promoting cell growth, and can improve our exercise tolerance. In a 2014 study on the effects of dark chocolate consumption and exercise, men who ate 40 grams of dark chocolate per day noticed a significant increase in the distance they could cycle, compared with men who ate 40 grams of white chocolate.
Opt for organic, low-sugar cocoa powder and watch out for excess sugar, which can have a reverse effect and cause inflammation, dry skin, and premature ageing.
Switch out your teas and coffees for these anti-ageing drinks and you should notice a difference to the quality and plumpness of your skin over time. And remember to avoid diuretics such as coffee, black tea, and low-calorie soft drinks, which can cause dehydration. For more anti-ageing advice, check back to the Oralift blog soon and follow us on Twitter.