While I was on vacation visiting my family in San Diego, I came across a fascinating article on increasing lifespan by restricting AGEs – Advanced Glycation End Products. (Yes, its true, even on vacation I am doing research.) Why should you care? Because AGEs are what you get when you eat BBQ and bacon and cheese.
Glycation is what happens when protein binds to sugar chemically. This is what happens when a meat or bread browns while cooking. Certain foods are naturally high in AGEs while others are naturally low.
The article was specifically looking at diabetes because glycation is considered the primary way diabetes damages the body. The high sugar levels in the blood cause sugars to bind to the proteins in artery walls and organ tissues causing damage and loss of function. The studies performed by the researchers found that AGEs found in foods were actually causing the diabetes in the first place through several different damaging pathways. Animals placed on a diet designed to reduce their exposure to AGEs prevented diabetes, reversed vascular damage, and extended their lifespan. Not only do AGEs damage cells by causing oxidation and inflammation, but the cells have receptors that react to these AGEs causing the cells to become insulin resistant.
Most of us are intimately familiar with AGEs because they make foods taste better and make us eat more as a result. Think of the taste of a nicely grilled steak compared to that same steak boiled. That taste difference is the AGEs. Foods that are naturally high in AGEs are typically our favorite foods like breads, cheese, bacon, fried chicken, pan fried and grilled meats, pizza, hot dogs and burgers. Foods low in AGEs are not at the top of our love it food list like poached eggs, veggies, and fruits. Yet diets that only have low AGE foods produce as much of an increase in life span as the low calorie restriction diets produce.
It seems like the wise crack I made years ago “if it tastes good it is probably poisonous” appears to be true. What are we to do? The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat all seems to be filled with toxins. We have to reduce our toxic burden by making wise choices like air purifiers, reverse osmosis drinking water, and avoiding as much toxic stuff from our foods as we can. But this can only go so far. We also need to increase our detoxification pathways in our body to throw these poisons off with things like the green fasts I have been writing about.
In any case, the point is that eating a diet high in AGEs creates inflammation that triggers disease states like diabetes. AGEs literally make us age faster, die sooner, and feel terrible as we are headed there. So attention to how we cook our food and what foods we eat directly controls how much chronic pain and suffering we will experience in our life. If we want to feel better, we have to eat better. It is as simple as that. We can’t eat crap and expect to feel ok for very long. The challenge is figuring out what foods are toxic and avoiding them.
The premise of the study I found was an attempt to discover why the rates of chronic degenerative disease were climbing so rapidly. Genetics was ruled out. The observation of the authors is that the rise in chronic disease follows the rise of thermally processed food in the human diet. Heat-treating food creates AGEs. For instance raw meat or dairy is low in AGEs, but when it has been treated at high temperatures for processing or cooking, the levels can increase 10 fold. The obvious answer is to prepare our foods at low temperatures. Flash pasteurizing milk to kill the high levels of germs that result from how we raise our dairy cows may be necessary, but it results in a damaged protein product. I choose not to consume such dairy products.
I no longer eat bread products, but when I did I would cut off the browned crusty crust because that bread browning is all AGEs. I cook meats sous vide now to get the ultimate in low temperature perfectly cooked meats. A frying pan or grill can reach temperatures as high as 700 degrees, while sous vide cooking will only reach a maximum temperature of 140 to 160 degrees. The higher the temperature the more AGEs you form. Low temperature crook pot cooking is a favorite method of mine for the same reasons.
Eighty to ninety percent of my diet is vegetables, raw nuts, and some fruit. The other 10 to 20% are things like steamed eggs, low temp cooked meats, and a few sardines. But occasionally I will indulge in something I know is toxic just because I like it – we are talking bacon here, and pepperoni, and cheese – basically a gluten free pizza. I don’t feel good the next day and usually have to fast a bit to recover completely, but that is life. We do what we do. The key for me is to compensate right away with a detoxification so my body can get back on track.
Consider reducing the AGEs you consume by sticking to low temperature cooking and avoiding processed foods. It is not realistic to try to be 100% good with your diet, but if you can shoot for being good most of the time and compensate with body detoxification for the rest, you should be able to avoid a lot of pain and suffering.