January 2023

Support "Pro-aging" with phytochemicals

As this fresh year starts, I hope you continue this journey to learn along with the scientists who are making new discoveries about how food can affect our health.

Many people start the year with a renewed resolve to look and feel younger. Not surprisingly, companies market a wide variety of “anti-aging” products and protocols in such a way to enhance our desire for a youthful and healthy appearance.   However, there is a competing school of thought where the goal is not to stop or reverse the aging process, but to embrace the challenges of senescence with a goal of maximizing the quality of each year of age. This “pro-aging” mindset is a dramatic shift from the “anti-aging” culture, but it is a mindset that is gaining traction and getting attention.   Those who have adopted a pro-aging mindset concentrate on how to maximize their current age to be able to do the things they want to do; accepting their age and feeling good about their health. Proponents of this approach suggest, our goal should not be to slow the passage of time, but to minimize damage to our health from environmental factors including poor diet, lack of movement, and regular exposure to harmful substances.1   How do phytochemicals factor into the aging process? Researchers have found that phytochemicals ingested and sometimes applied to the skin can improve the body’s reaction to oxidizing damage caused by inflammatory foods and pollution.2   There is no food that is a “magic bullet” for diabetes, skin cancer, or weight loss, but, incorporating more components of the Mediterranean style diet and increasing the number of targeted phytochemicals in your diet CAN improve the way your body handles the physiologic changes of aging and disease. We can support the biochemical reactions that are allowing our body to function by providing the raw materials that will help the reactions take place at the right speed and with as little poisonous byproduct as possible. Healthspan: A Paradigm Shift?   If lifespan is the length of a person’s life, then “heathspan” is the length of time during one’s life that is “spent in good health, free from the chronic diseases and disabilities of aging.”3 Some scientists are hesitant to begin incorporating the term “healthspan” into common use in scientific literature because it does not have a quantifiable definition.3 However, it is a word that can be used to help differentiate between a healthy life length vs a span of life that has much decreased quality due to diminished health. As you see patients in the coming year, I hope that you will consider their healthspan; and allow time to discuss the positive impact phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables can have on the human body.

PhytoRx wrap-up

Fifteen patients completed an 8-week iteration of the PhytoRx program in Iredell County last month. The patients tried new foods, new food preparation methods and they drank more water. The PhytoRx program is built around partnerships among multiple community stakeholders who are positioned to be part of a comprehensive approach to healthcare. Here’s how it worked in Iredell County, North Carolina.  Healthcare providers at HeathReach Community Clinic (Iredell County’s only free medical facility) were given a PhytoRx short course where they learned how to help patients choose foods that would have direct effects on their chronic conditions. The providers then gave prescriptions for specific fruit and vegetable groups (based on phytochemicals) that would augment their in-clinic treatment plan.

Patients took the prescription to PhytoRx partner, FeedNC (southern Iredell County’s food-centered education and grocery co-op) to “fill” the prescriptions with a variety of foods matching the phytochemicals indicated by the medical provider. The availability of specific produce items can vary from week to week at FeedNC, so their staff was educated on suitable substitutions that still fulfilled the phytochemcial recommendations (carotenoids, anthocyanins, or both) from the prescription. Andrea Sherrill, RD, is the NC Cooperative Extension Family and Consumer Science Agent in Iredell County. She connected with PhytoRx participants to educate them on healthy eating through a Mediterranean style eating program. Even when a new dish wasn’t an immediate hit, she offered another preparation option and encouraged them to give the fruit or vegetable a second chance. She focused on making small shifts in food choices that collectively, overtime will have a big impact on health.   Participants watched videos, used new kitchen tools, and fixed recipes with foods they may not have seen before. The program finale offered participants a dinner made with recipes using concepts from the Mediterranean diet and a congratulatory grocery gift card for completion of the program. In eight weeks, these patients reported establishing new habits for better health and finding new foods that were not previously part of their diet; eight weeks earlier they had received not a prescription for medicine, but a prescription for health.  Are you interested in learning more about the PhytoRx program and how to incorporate it in your practice? Or learning how to build partnerships in your community? Let’s talk; tell me your interest and we'll determine how we can work together.

PhytoRx Recipe: Massaged Kale Salad

Add some pro-aging phytonutrients to your meal with this tasty side salad. The small intestine is lined with bitter receptors identical to the tongue's taste receptors. When bitter components bind to these intestinal receptors, glucose transport is regulated. Including bitter foods, like kale, in your diet can help manage diabetes.

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PhytoMed Primer

Citations 1. Kaeberlein, M. (2018). How healthy is the healthspan concept? Geroscience, 40(4), 361-364.   2. Rattan, S. I., & Kaur, G. (2022). Nutrition, Food and Diet in Health and Longevity: We Eat What We Are. Nutrients, 14(24), 5376.   3. Woodby, B., Penta, K., Pecorelli, A., Lila, M. A., & Valacchi, G. (2020). Skin Health from the Inside Out. Annual review of food science and technology, 11, 235–254.

Let's connect! Cheri Granillo Translational Nutrition Program Manager [email protected] 704-250-5492

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