Salmon steaks for glowing skin? Salmon a source of Palmitic acid, a saturated fat demonstrated repeatedly to be toxic to liver, pancreatic and kidney cells. Female marketed multi-vitamin combinations? Of synthetic As and Es found consistently to correlate with shortened overall lifespan. Articles are lazily mass regurgitated and an injustice to their reader.

Online blasts and pop beauty blogs are a sieve between science and the public. Although the quest for eternal youth is so old in science it is an alchemical forefather of modern chemistry, and science certainly has a lot to say on the subject, sadly the most abundant information on the internet is the cheap, seemingly viable and satisfying.

So. Why do we age?

It's all in the DNA, no you're not pre-written to age like your parents, but the damage done to DNA over time by the environment: UV, pollution, lifestyle stress, alcohol etc.

There are two ways in which DNA becomes damaged.

Method No.1

Telomeres are caps at the end of chromosomes like the cap of a shoelace. Over time telomeres get damaged and fragile DNA is exposed (like an unravelling lace). Exposed DNA becomes damaged causing loss of skin elasticity, age spots, inhibited cell turnover and tumours. Once DNA is destroyed entirely the cell dies and we are but the sum of our parts.

In the White Mountains of California there’s exists a 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine. It is the oldest living organism on Earth and the source of the discovery of telomerase and Nobel prize award to Elizabeth Blackburn in 2009.

Telomerease is a little (enzyme) guy running around the bodies of living organisms locking back up your DNA to safety by rebuilding telomeres. Humans have telomerase though not as abundantly as the bristlecone pine of California. The key to a five thousand year lifespan with minimal signs of ageing is for telomerase to keep rebuilding your telomeres.

Method No.2

The mitochondrial theory suggests free radicals damage our cells’ power source (mitochondria). As a visual, free radicals can be seen as toxic and volatile molecular balls moving around the body frying our cell's generator. Minus a power source, like a light bulb, the cell dies. Poof.

Oxidant stress, the science-y name for free radicals going around beating up cells, is the culprit for wrinkles, sagging and the steady decline of organ systems. The less pretty these systems are on the inside, the more the wear shows on the outside.

If we are repeatedly exposed to free radical damage, without giving our body a moment’s break or the right resources to recover, we age.

Keys to Preventing Ageing

Fasting

5:2. Warrior Diet. [Insanity of...] The Snake Diet. Fasting is, and has been mainstream hot since Dr Michael Mosley's 2012 BBC Horizon ventures in Eat, Fast, Live Longer.

Faddy as the media attention dresses it up to be Curative Fasting Centres have been established since the 1970’s in Europe and Russia. Some of the most compelling and scientifically controlled research ever seen to date into longevity surfaced behind the iron curtain in the 1950s. Worth mentioning here is that both Europe and Russia represent global arenas which more readily take to treatments where Big Pharma and the multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry doesn't stand to profit, than, say, the USA.

How Fasting Works

The beneficial effects of caloric restriction on longevity and anti-ageing work by suppressing the TOR and IGF -1 pathways. Think of these as two high speed motorways, so long as they're open you're flying down a one way route to old age. Closing these 'motorways' is the biological equivalent of pulling off to get the car serviced. Once these pathways are closed the body goes into a state of repair. Relating back to our two methods of ageing, free radical damage gets a tidy up and telemoeres repaired to protect vital DNA.

The downside

Fasting is a miserable business. There's good reason centres were set up for it, if you're going to dedicate yourself to a week or two without food you'll be wanting to do it in a big mac free zone.

For example, in the Minnesota Starvation Study many volunteers suffered: preoccupation with food (yes they were hungry), constant hunger (I refer the reader to the previous parentheses), binge eating and emotional and psychological issues.

Thankfully one can get the same effects of not eating at all by instead not eating certain proteins. The biggest culprit here is Leucine, a protein, which has the biggest Go, Go, Go effect on TOR pathways and can be found in eggs, dairy, processed meat, chicken and fish.

Leucine eats away at telomere length ageing their frequent diner (3-4 servings per week) by six years for fish and 14 years for processed meat. The additional saturated fat found in meat, eggs and dairy contributes to inflammation. Swapping just 1% of saturated fat calories, that daily handful of cheese, can add a year onto telomere length.

Limiting meat, fish, dairy and eggs for a minimum of only four consecutive days can give the same benefits for cellular repair as undertaking four consecutive days of fasting.

Sun and Air Exposure

UV rays are the Most widely known cause of free radicals and, combined with the oxidising effects of oxygen in the air, years of exposure can lead to thinner skin more prone to permanent creasing (wrinkles) and loss of elasticity and volume (sagging).

To prevent this it is necessary to limit damage (sunscreen minimum of 30 SPF), counter free radicals with antioxidants (the good-guy nemesis of free radicals) and repair damage by inflammation.

Grapes, berries, leeks, onions, garlic, cooking herbs, pumpkin, mangoes, apricots, carrots, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, soy beans, tofu, lentils, peas, (writer takes deep breath) all fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains have antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory.

Consuming a large variety of any fruit and/or vegetable is as anti-ageing for the skin (and lighter on the wallet) as shovelling blueberries, goji berries and grimacing through bowls of kale. Green and yellow vegetables, tea, apples, prunes and extra virgin olive oil especially have powerful effects in combating skin wrinkling from free radical damage. What’s more the phytonutrients in green tea are able to protect skin against harmful UV radiation and improve skin quality (16% smoother and 24% less scaling).

Measuring how much vitamin C subjects had in their bloodstreams, vitamin C level indicating how many veggies subjects were eating, scientists found 5-7 daily servings of vegetables to be the equivalent of turning back the clock 14 years within three months.

When looking at the Mediterranean style diet scientists found the single most important component was the high consumption of plant foods. The PREDIMED study scored participant diets, eat an animal derived food lose a brownie point, eat any plat derived food - we're talking crisps and chips - gain a brownie point. The study found if people consume any kind of plant food, processed or not, tipping this score up in the majority of plant-based foods, they're looking at a 40% drop in mortality and ageing.

The Take-Away for Ageing Beautifully

It isn't go vegan. Blue Zones, parts of the world with the highest life expectancy and quality of life at said later years, all have in common that their diets are high in plant foods and reserve meat for special occasions. Animal derived proteins and saturated fats force the body into overdrive, place free radicals into the blood stream, provoke inflammation and chip away at telomeres.

Keeping it simple and inexpensive the best anti-ageing advice is also the most intuitive, wear sunscreen and fill up on antioxidant rich vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains to undo the environmental stress placed on both the complexion and internal organs.