Whoever said life peaks in your 20s clearly has not met this group of talented actresses. Yes, they're over 60 (with many in their 70s), but they're all living life with a vitality that many women even decades younger can't match. Straight from the mouth of babes, learn what it takes to age gracefully.
We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!
Eating too much sugar certainly isn’t wise for your waistline, but did you know that overindulging in dessert can add years to your face? And even if you do strenuous cardio workouts each week, you’ll be missing out on potential antiaging body benefits if your schedule doesn’t include yoga, weight training, and rest.
"Good nutrition is a fundamental building block of healthy skin," explains Leslie Baumann, MD, a Miami Beach dermatologist. The natural ingredients in whole foods such as romaine lettuce and strawberries help increase cell turnover and boost production of collagen fibers to help keep skin smooth and firm. Conversely, foods with little-to-no nutritional benefits, like sugar-packed doughnuts, can actually damage the collagen and elastin that keep skin firm and youthful. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Even if your diet is wholesome, you could be making exercise mistakes that age you as well. For example, if you only do cardio at the expense of other types of exercise, like yoga and strength training, you could be missing out on skin-protective benefits.
Find out if you're making one of these five common aging diet and exercise mistakes and get smart prevention strategies that can keep you slim and youthful for years to come.
1. You Overdo Dessert
The breakdown of sugars, called glycation, damages the collagen that keeps skin smooth and firm. To prevent this natural process from careening out of control, Naila Malik, MD, a derm in Southlake, TX, sticks to low-glycemic carbs like whole grains: they're naturally low in sugar, and the body processes them slowly to limit the loss of collagen. If you want to sweeten up your tea or oatmeal without making your skin look older, try all-natural stevia. It's an easily digested herbal sweetener that doesn't trigger glycation, according to board-certified dermatologist Nicholas Perricone, MD, an adjunct professor of medicine at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine.
More Surprising Reasons Sweets Cause Wrinkles
See what other antiaging mistakes you're making after the break!
Everyone, even celebrities, approaches aging differently. Although lots of people look great their entire lives, they have widely varying advice on how they got there. Here, 10 women whose beauty has withstood the test of time share their beliefs about staying stunning. From the highly philosophical to the utterly pragmatic, it's advice you'll definitely want to consider.
Beauty editor Lois Joy Johnson has been in the business for around 30 years, starting her career in at Mademoiselle and eventually working with magazines like More and Ladies' Home Journal. "I kind of aged with my reader," Johnson explains.
And as you can imagine, Johnson has picked up a lot of cosmetic tips and tricks along the way. So with that knowledge in mind, what advice would she give if she could go back in time and have a chitchat with her 25-year-old self? To find out the confessions of this beauty editor, just keep reading.
When it comes to the pursuit of beauty, women in the US put a disproportionate emphasis on looking young. It's far less expensive (and often more attractive) to simply age gracefully and take care of yourself. But just as a thought experiment, we wanted to see just how much you'd spend over a lifetime if you were to try and look 25 forever. We did the math, so to find out, just keep reading.
There's probably no better road map to aging than the face. A wrinkle here, a sunspot there — all signs that we're growing up. Let's be real; there's no magic cure for wrinkles and the other effects of aging, but there are preventive measures to take that don't involve fancy creams or weekly visits to the esthetician. Wrinkles, dry skin, and sun spots, all common signs of aging; find out which foods will stop them dead in their tracks. The fountain of youth is just a meal away.
If someone mentioned that smiling left such an (ever) lasting impression, some of us may have been a little more selective with what we found funny. It seems that no matter what age you are when it happens, wrinkles still have the ability to make you feel, well, old. Keep in mind, aging isn't the only thing that causes wrinkles: smoking, sun damage, and all that squinting, smiling, and frowning also contribute to those little — and sometimes, not-so-little — lines that find a home on our face.
Preventative Foods: Vitamin C serums are huge in the skincare world as a good line of defense against wrinkles. They also come with a hefty price tag. Guess what? Science says, an orange a day keeps the wrinkles away! A study showed that participants who ate a diet high in vitamin C and linoleic acid were less prone to wrinkles. While we're talking fruit, you may want to up your berry intake, too. The antioxidant powerhouses are key in keeping skin free of environmental stress that help contribute to aging.
Learn which foods help with dry skin and sunspots after the break
If 50 is the new 30, then 30 is the new 10, and I'm going out to play. But, alas, 50 is 50 — anything else is a marketing dream — and Britons say 59 is elderly. Age may just be number, but old age depends on what country you're in (like a 10 p.m. sunset in Canada). The French say it's 63, Greeks say 68, and Turks are young at heart until 72. These numbers, though, really tell us more about how the young see age than how the old feel it.
Old age, 10-year-old Wikipedia says, is an age that is near or beyond the average lifespan. That means Britons shouldn't feel old until about 80.1, while Turks are right on schedule, feeling old at 73 just after surpassing their 72.1 expiration date. Since the study, Predictors of Attitudes to Age Across Europe, did not include the US, we can't say for sure what Americans deem old; however, if going by the average-lifespan rule, old age commences at 78.7. Mark your calendars!
I only ponder "what qualifies as old age?" while on public transportation and evaluating if a person is really old enough to relinquish my seat to, so I can't say exactly, but I'd bet it starts well before 78. Jessica Alba, who just turned 30, recently talked to PopSugar LA about her esthetician friend, saying "even if I don't really need a facial she comes over and makes me look younger." How much younger can a 30-year-old look?
I imagine old age to be freeing à la Betty White — like if you make it that far then who cares? Because, like Jessica Alba, what I really fear is losing my youth; once that's gone, bring it! What about you?
Everyday stresses can dampen anyone's mood. But don't let the stress get to you too much — you may be shortening your life if you do so.
A gerontologist says that his longest-living patients are the ones that know how to take life's stresses and roll with the punches. Even though they've experienced their share of setbacks in their long lives (like losing loved ones and health scares), they've been able to maintain a positive disposition, which translates to years living longer: a study found that those who had negative perception about aging had more than a seven-year difference between the length of their lives and their happier counterparts.
While it is easier said than done, the ability to adapt a happier outlook is a good idea for your health. Want some suggestions on how to do so? Check them out after the break.
If you have an iPad, the 0 to 100 Project is a gorgeous free download. The app is actually an art book, with images by photographer Sandy Nicholson documenting "the true face of the human lifespan: 101 portraits of folks at every age, from mere weeks to a full century old."
You can see snapshots of what people look like as they age and even make composite faces, and the photos are beautiful. The book also comes in traditional print format, but you can get it digitally gratis. It's a thought-provoking look at the diversity of human aging and well worth a tiny bit of memory on your iPad.
