"Try It For 1 Week" - Most Effective Way To REVERSE AGING IN DAYS! I Dr. William Li

0:00 Everyone wants to live longer, but the real goal isn't just longevity. It's staying as healthy as possible at any age for as long as we can. But scientists are trying to understand why some people maintain their health well into the later decades, 80s, and 90s and above, while others develop chronic diseases and die much earlier. Can the foods you eat actually slow the biology of aging? Let me give you six foods that actually can help tackle those hallmarks of aging. Number one, Hi, I'm Dr. William Lee, physician, scientist, and New York Times bestselling author of the books Eat to Beat Disease and Eat to Beat Your Diet.

0:46 Right now, there's growing interest in high-tech approaches to longevity, genetic testing, experimental therapies, longevity biohacks, and all kinds of new devices and blood tests and wearables. And while the science behind these approaches is fascinating, what if some of the most powerful influences on how we age are actually much simpler, less expensive, and available to everyone? In my own family, for example, my great uncle lived to 104 years old. Okay, very intact and independently. And one habit he maintained every day was drinking green tea and going for a morning walk. Now, of course, no single food or daily workout determines how long one lives. But it does raise an interesting question. Can everyday foods influence the biology of aging? And that's what

1:33 this video is all about and what I want to explore with you today. Why are scientists studying aging? Well, it's really interesting because did you know that there are more people living past the age of 100 today than at any time in human history? In other words, longevity is already happening. But scientists are trying to understand why some people maintain their health well into the later decades, 80s and 90s and above, while others develop chronic diseases and die much earlier. Well, it turns out that there are a set of biological processes that help to explain what's happening inside the body as we age. And this has been giving a name. It's called the hallmarks of aging. And they include things like damage accumulating in our DNA as we age, changes in how our cells produce energy through power plants

2:18 called mitochondria, increased inflammation as we're in a aging. In fact, it's called inflammaging, weakened mitochondria, gradual decline in the body's ability to repair and regenerate ourselves, and a number of other hallmarks as well. In other words, aging reflects gradual decline and changes in the systems that normally defend and maintain our health. But here's the encouraging part. Many of these systems, these hallmarks are actually quite resilient. Our health defenses are very resilient. And the hallmarks can actually be tackled. And by the way, these uh signals can come from our environment, including our diet, the food that we eat. So that's one of the things I want to talk about because one of the things I've always found fascinating is how food provides much more than nourishment. In other words, calories, energy. Foods provides biological signals. Every time we eat

3:04 something, those signals, they come from bioactives, natural chemicals found in foods. I call it mother nature's pharmacy with an F, pharmacy, not a PH. Mother Nature's pharmacy that deliver those signals that influence our cells inside our body. And that can actually influence our metabolism, make it better, influence our circulation so we have better blood flow, influence our gut health, so our gut microbiome is healthier as well. And many of those food bioactives can calm inflammation. Food even influences how our cells respond to stress. So when we're talking about healthy aging, I think it's more helpful to talk about specific foods and everyday habits rather than sort of handwavy general nutrition advice. You know, eat plant-based foods, eat the rainbow. I think it's helpful to get really, really specific. So one of the

3:50 things that I want to do is to flip the script a little bit. Instead of thinking about longevity through biohacking or high-tech solutions, I think it's worth asking some practical questions about which foods can we eat to support the systems that protect our cells and our organs as we age, right? Makes a lot of sense. How do we get longer, healthier with simple solutions? After that, we can actually go for the more complex ones, but how do we keep it simple? So, let me give you six foods that I like to put into my own life that are regular parts of my diet that actually can help tackle those hallmarks of aging. Are you ready? Let's go. Number one, green tea. As I mentioned earlier, my great uncle drank green tea every day and he lived to 140 years old. What does green tea contain? It contains polyphenols called kakans. And these kakans help cells

4:36 defend themselves against oxidative stress. This is stress that can damage DNA and actually contributes to faster aging. Clinical studies show that drinking 3 to four cups of green tea per day. All right. Now, my great uncle probably drank 10 cups of green tea a day, but the clinical studies show even three to four cups a day can provide meaningful health benefits, including lowering the risk of many chronic diseases, including cancer. Now, in my own routine, I like to sip green tea usually later in the day, I find it very, very relaxing. So, that calming effect in addition to helping to protect my cells, I think is actually something that I benefit from. Getting better rest actually allows my body to kind of re restore uh itself. Uh, and I want to give you a little pro tip. If you want to maximize the benefits of green tea

5:23 polyphenols, here's what I want you to try. Try matcha. Matcha tea is made by taking tea leaves and grinding the entire leaf into a powder. So, you get all the polyphenols uh not just the ones that actually steep from soaking the leaves in hot water. So you get that whole uh leaf polyphenol, you get a lot more kakin uh plus you get the fiber from the leaf as well and that nourishes your gut microbiome. And guess what your gut microbiome does? It lowers inflammation. It improves your metabolism. It improves your immune system. And so this is just the tip of the iceberg of the research that shows how green tea can help to address those hallmarks of aging. Ready for the next one? Number two is broccoli and cruciferous greens. Now, I know probably

6:08 when you were a kid, you rolled your eyes when your mom talked about broccoli for dinner. But I will tell you that broccoli is actually a family of foods. Broccoli, broccolini, broccoli rob um and cruciferous greens in general are a large family of foods that contain substances that help counter those hallmarks of aging. These vegetables contain powerful bioactive substances called isociocyanates, isociocyanates, ITC's. And these ITC's actually help to protect your cells and they improve your metabolism to help burn down extra harmful visceral fat and they also reduce inflammation as well. So little pro tip when it comes to cooking them. Now I would never eat broccoli or broccolini raw. I know that uh you know

6:55 some people cut them up into salads, but I sauté my broccoli and I like to saute it in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, a little bit of garlic and maybe add some chili flakes. You combine all the polyphenols uh and bioactives from those simply will make your cooked delicious dish activate even more of your health defenses and even counter those hallmarks of aging more effectively. Now, by the way, when you cook vegetables and they taste really good, you want to chew them, right? Because you want to savor the flavor. It's important to chew the plants and not just try to wolf down and swallow uh the veggies like you might have done when you were a kid. But I'll tell you, there's a secret to chewing. When you chew, chew, chew plants like broccoli, cruciferous vegetables, your teeth are breaking down the plant cell walls. Plants are made out of cells as well.

7:42 When you chew them, you're breaking down those cell walls like stamping onto a shoe box and they collapse. And when they collapse, you know what your those plant cells release? They release an enzyme called murrosinase. And that enzyme murosinates activates the ITC's the isothiocyanates and releases all the active stuff that can help protect ourselves. So chewing itself actually is beneficial in terms of countering inflammation and improving our overall health defenses to counter those hallmarks of aging. So make sure you cook your vegetables in ways that you actually enjoy. All right, food number three, spinach. Speaking of greens, one of my favorites is spinach. And spinach grows low to the ground. It's a good source of natural nitrates

8:27 that come from the soil. Uh, and when you chew spinach, we're talking about chewing our food. What happens? Something amazing. When you're chewing your spinach, the healthy bacteria on your tongue actually interact with those nitrates. And the uh tongue bacteria, the microbiome on your tongue converts those nitrates into compound. When you swallow uh that bite, it's absorbed into your bloodstream as nitric oxide, N O. What's nitric oxide? Well, nitric oxide is a signaling molecule that does a lot of things in the body. It but one of the things I want to point out is it helps to improve your circulation. You get better blood flow, which is really important as we get older to be able to really bathe our organs, including our brain, our heart, our muscles, in plenty

9:13 of oxygen and micronutrients. Now these blood vessels that are delivering oxygen and nutrients to every cell in the body are really important for reaching a really extreme age. In fact, studies of centinarians, these are people who have made it to 100 or older, show that those who get into that position, those lucky people, you know what, they actually have healthier blood vessels than people who don't make it that. And that's been established with research that does something called proteomics with you basically with draw some blood and you look at all the proteins in a blood and you compare the people who reached to 100 above to those who didn't and we find that the molecules that are different in the people who made it to 100 and older centinarians actually protect and improve circulation. Nitric oxide by the way is one of those things

9:59 that is preserved in those older people. Now what's interesting is nitric oxide does something else really important. It helps our body regenerate through our own natural stem cells. Now, I know a lot of you have heard about stem cells. You go to the strip mall, the corner mall, get an injection into your knee or your shoulder. That's not what I'm talking about. In fact, those types of stem cells, in my opinion, as a doctor, not yet ready for prime time. I know that they can benefit some people, but there's also some risks, and we don't know how to make them work well enough. But guess what? Mother nature is much much smarter than what's going on in the corner of strip mall because our body has its own stem cells. In fact, when we're born, we actually have about 70 million stem cells that get stored after we're born in our bone marrow and in our

10:44 skin in some of our organs as well. And whenever nitric oxide is in our bloodstream, which eating spinach can actually do, guess what? That nitric oxide calls out the stem cells like bees coming out of a hive. And those stem cells circulate in our bloodstream and they look for organs and tissues to fix to repair. Anything damaged gets uh repaired. Think about it like a road crew that's driving along the highways looking for potholes. But guess what? They actually have their asphalt with them so they can just plug the hole, patch it, make it drivable as soon as they spot it. That's what stem cells do to help us repair and regenerate ourselves. Now, why does that matter for aging? Well, one of those hallmarks of aging is guess what? Stem cell depletion. not enough stem cells coming out in our bloodstream. So, here's a way

11:30 with nitric oxide coming from spinach that we can eat and chewing it that can actually help to replete or replenish some of those stem cells. Now, what's interesting is that different foods support different hallmarks of aging. Some protects DNA, some protect circulation, others nourish the gut microbiome, healthy gut bacteria. By the way, if you're interested in how food interacts with the biology of your health, including aging, immunity, metabolism, and circulation, and your genesis, what I study, please subscribe to this channel. I share new science and practical strategies like this regularly. Now, let's take a look at another example of a food that can help combat those hallmarks of aging in order to keep us healthier longer. You ready for the next one? Number four, eggs.

12:15 Another food that supports healthy aging is eggs. Eggs are a great source of protein which helps to maintain muscle mass as we got older. They also contain all nine essential amino acids and they're a really great nutrientdense food. Eggs also contain something called choline. In fact, they're one of the richest sources of choline which your body uses, your brain uses to make neurotransmitters. These are actually the hormones that go around in your brain to signal one cell to another cell to have better brain function. Eggs also contain two bioactive compounds called luteine and zeazanthin. Ze a x a n t h i n. Lutein and zeazanthin. And guess what these two compounds do? They help to protect your

13:01 vision. Now, as we get older, one of our senses can sometimes dull. And the one sense that I think is one of the most important to enjoy a long healthy life is good vision. And there are many diseases of aging that involve damage to your vision. Eggs containing luteine and zeazanthin by the way which are found in the yolk actually protect your vision from the uh conditions of aging that cause vision loss. One of them is called age related macular degeneration. I've worked in this area before. There's some remarkable treatments that can prevent vision loss from this. But guess what? Eating eggs protects your retina, the the sensitive carpet of nerves in the back of your eye that you need for good vision. Now, I want to give you some pro tips when it comes to eggs. When you're cooking eggs in a pan, let's say you're scrambling eggs or you're doing a sunny

13:48 side up, rather than use butter, I would tell you to try using extra virgin olive oil instead. That's what I use instead of butter. All right? Butter's got saturated fats. Extravirgin olive oil has got polyphenols. It's a simple way to add hearthealthy polyphenols into your body right at breakfast time. Now, another simple trick that you can use when you're cooking eggs is to add a little bit of spice to it. A little pinch of turmeric, some little fresh cracked black pepper, you know, it actually adds just an interesting color, but it actually makes the egg so much more protective. Turmeric contains natural bioactives including substance called kurcumin, which is a powerful anti-inflammatory compound. inflammation. One of the hallmarks of aging and it's antioxidant as well, which means it protects your DNA, which is another hallmark of aging is damage

14:34 to the DNA. The black pepper, by the way, helps your body absorb more of the curcumin from the turmeric. So, sometimes food combinations can actually be really helpful. But this is a simple way add another layer beneficial uh compounds, i.e. extravirgin olive oil, maybe a little bit of turmeric, a little bit of black pepper. Extra way to actually um add health to your meal. Food number five, one of my favorites, beans. I'm talking about black beans, kidney beans, uh lentils, chickpeas, other kind of legumes. But let me just tell you about beans. Beans are inexpensive, widely available. They're shelf stable. You can put them in your pantry for months and maybe even years. All right? And beans contain many, many beneficial compounds, including they're a great source of plant protein. All

15:21 right? We all know how important protein is. a good source of dietary fiber which feeds our gut microbiome, healthy gut bacteria. Beans contain some polyphenols and beans contain resistant starches which can also help us have better gut health as well. Better gut health, better immune health, lower inflammation, better metabolism, right? Okay. So, when you feed your gut microbiome with beans, for example, healthy gut bacteria, you know what they do? They produce compounds called shortchain fatty acids, scaffas, scfa scaffas. And guess what those scaffas do? They help to reduce inflammation and they improve metabolic function. Really important. In fact, my friend Dan Butner, who is actually credited for studying the blue zones. These are places where people live exceptionally

16:07 long lives, very well, and very healthy. Dan points out that these blue zones have a common thread which is that all of the people there eat beans as the common denominator especially among centenarians. People who make it to 100 and older and you know what I love beans because you know you can cook them into a soup or stew can make a vegetarian chili. It's an inexpensive way to make a bunch of food that you can share with a lot of people and the leftovers will be tastier even the next day. So it's a inexpensive way to really generate a lot of health uh in pragmatic ways. And if you look at the ancients go to back to archaeology um you can actually see people were eating beans going all the way back to Roman times. You can find evidence of beans left over there. All right, food number six. One of my favorites, pomegranate. Pomegranates

16:54 contain natural substance of bioactives called eligotanins. And when you eat pomegranate juice and swallow those elagitanins, your gut bacteria actually metabolize the the elagitanins and they produce a substance called eurolithn. U l i t h i n and the letter a. Now uriththna actually does something really important. It supports the health of your mitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy factories of our cells. And one of the hallmarks of aging is declining mitochondrial function. kind of like your batteries running down low. And by supporting mitochondrial health with uralithn which you can actually get by eating pomegranate which has a lot of tannins. Okay, you see how it all makes sense. Guess what? You actually boost

17:40 your cells power energy power. Gives actually more power. And you think about it, aging, you kind of slow down. You don't feel quite as energetic. This is one way of combating that hallmark of aging at the mitochondria level. Now pomegranates are not the only food that contains. Other foods are strawberries have elagitenins. Raspberries have elagiten. And guess what? One of the tree nuts, walnuts are a great source of elagitenins as well. Super easy to find all these foods that that I've actually talked about and very simple to include in your diet. Look, fighting the hallmarks of aging so that you can age more gracefully without suffering as much damage as you age is as simple as choosing the right foods and sticking on your plate in ways that you can keep up with, not just once in a while, but you know, on a regular basis. Now, having

18:26 told you what foods to include that can help counter the hallmarks of aging, I want to tell you about some foods to limit as well. The reason you want to limit these is because they actually speed up those hallmarks. They actually put fuel on those hallmarks that can actually make make you age faster, right? So, here are some foods that you actually want to reduce. Cut down or cut out. And those are ultrarocessed foods. You don't want to eat a lot of those. They actually make your aging go a little bit faster. You don't want to have extra added refined sugar. Now, I know there's a big conversation about sugar. What I would tell you is that when you actually eat a lot of sugar and you overwhelm your metabolism, that actually makes those hallmarks of aging worse. And then finally, you want to stay away from cut down or cut out artificial additives. you know, preservatives colorings flavorings artificial sweeteners. You know why?

19:12 Research is still early, but they're showing that those chemical substances can disrupt the gut microbiome. Remember, I told you just how important healthy gut microbiome is, right? Releasing those scaffas, helping to boost our immunity, even keeping our metabolism good, and even text messaging our brain for brain function. Really, really important. So, we want to stay away from ultrarocessed foods, excessive refined sugars, and artificial additives that you can find in so many packaged foods. As well, there's another dimension to slowing the biology of aging that doesn't always get enough attention. I want to actually take the time to just spell it out for you now, and that is not just what we eat, but when we eat, the time that we eat during the day. Okay? Now, think about it. Our human metabolism evolved with periods of eating, usually during the day and

19:59 periods where it was harder to find food, where you went without food, right? And by the way, that's called fasting when you don't actually eat food. And every day, every night when we're sleeping, we're sleeping, we're not eating. So that means we're naturally fasting. So on a daily basis, every 24 hours, we are partially eating and we're partially fasting. And that partially fasting is called intermittent, which means every now and then fasting. You've probably heard a lot about intermittent fasting, but I want to kind of break it down into something simple. I'll make a bigger video about this uh at another time, but allowing a 12hour overnight fasting window. That means you're not eating for 12 hours, right? So, let's say you finish dinner at 7:00 uh and you put your dishes away and you're not going to eat anymore until the next morning at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast at 7:00 p.m. to

20:46 7:00 a.m. That's 12 hours, right? That 12-hour window of fasting allows the body to carry out its own biological maintenance and repair process. Really, really important. So, what does this mean? It means you don't want to eat too late. When you eat too late, you're cutting into those 12 natural hours of fasting. Now, some people fast even longer, which can be better. All right, beneficial. I'm not going to go into the extremes because I really don't believe it's helpful for people to think that extremes are the way to go. It can't sustain that. But I'm just telling you, if you leave a window from 7:00 to in the evening to 7 o'clock in the morning, that's your 12 hours of not eating. If you start cutting into that and have a midnight snack at 10:00 or 11:00, you're just shortening the window of fasting. You're giving your body less time to

21:32 repair itself and to rest. Okay? Including your brain to drain toxins. So, what you want to do is keep your fasting window at least 12 hours. Figure it out. You don't have to squeeze it all into a few hours eating, but you want to actually give yourself plenty of room to actually repair and rest and recover. And guess what? Simple habits like eating early and not snacking and then trying to get good quality sleep. If you eat really late, you're not going to get good sleep on a regular basis if you keep eating late all the time, right? So, avoid your midnight snacks. Get a good night's sleep. Your body is going to thank you for it because it's going to be repairing and restoring itself during that fasting window. So, it's not just what you eat. Um, and you don't want to eat too much. That's like how much you eat, but it's also when you eat as well. Try to keep yourself, give yourself a good 12 hours of not eating,

22:19 and your body's and your health is going to thank you for it. Let me put this all together for you. Scientists have identified the hallmarks of aging. These are the this is the biological processes that occur to make us look and feel older and function older as we get into our later years. These are the hallmarks of aging. But many of these hallmarks can be countered. and can battle them uh using things that we have available to us every day including what we eat, what we don't eat, what we limit, when we eat, and how much we eat. Don't eat too much because it can overwhelm your metabolism and flood your body with calories and ultimately body fat. So these are the kinds of small choices made consistently, all right, that we can do every single day that actually help our cells age more healthily over

23:05 time. And at the end of the day, these day-to-day choices, they influence the quality and speed at which we age and feel older as well. If you're interested in how food interacts with your body's natural health defense systems, including your immune system, your metabolism, your circulation, your stem cells, and aging, subscribe to my channel. And I would love to hear from you. Tell me in your comments what foods or habits have helped you stay as healthy as possible as you age. Let me know in the comments. Thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video. Dr. Lee out. Hey, if you like that video, then you're going to love this one. Check it out.