Anti-aging requires the consumption of plant nutrients. Phytochemicals, also known as phytonutrients, are chemical compounds found in fruits, vegetables, and plant extracts that have numerous health and beauty benefits.
Phytochemicals provide plants characteristics like colour, which can promote pollination by acting as an appealing beacon for passing bees. They may help safeguard the plant by repelling grazing animals or keeping insects from harming it. However, they have frequently been discovered to give health benefits for humans when studied in laboratory. Because of these chemicals in plants, fruit and vegetables are far more significant than merely macronutrients like vitamin C.
One sort of phytonutrient is antioxidants, but there are several more. Antioxidants work by giving free radicals (molecules that don’t have enough oxygen) an extra molecule of oxygen. If antioxidants fail to deliver the missing oxygen molecule to free radicals, the free radicals will grab an oxygen molecule from another chemical in the body, changing a previously healthy and undamaged component into a free radical. Free radicals are not ‘baddies,’ but rather unstable chemical compounds that have a negative impact on the body due to their ability to kill cells. Free radicals are naturally formed as a result of our cells’ metabolic processes, as well as by our immune system fighting viruses and the environment.
The goal is to keep the body in a healthy balance, with adequate antioxidants to combat the body’s production of free radicals.
The skin is affected by free radicals in three ways. They have the capacity to alter the lipid layers that make up your cell membranes. These fatty layers give the cell its structure and control the flow of nutrients and other agents in and out. They have the power to alter the DNA within cells, which can result in wrinkles and sagging in your skin before its biological time, in addition to the risk of catastrophic illnesses. Collagen and elastin fibres that don’t work as well as they should are created by altered DNA. To make matters worse, the skin’s pores must be tight and narrow in order for collagen and elastin fibres to remain healthy. As a result, open, large pores are a common side effect.
Free radicals also trigger the cross-linking of collagen strands. This is caused by collagen and elastin fibres becoming hard, thick, and then bonding together in the skin’s dermis. Cross-linked fibres generate wrinkles, sagging skin, and permanent carvings in your face from your regular expression lines. If you had healthy collagen and elastin fibres, these expression lines would simply disappear if you worked your facial muscles in a different way. Free radicals also increase the activity of enzymes that metabolise collagen, which is something that should be avoided given the role of collagen in youthful skin.
Carotenoids and flavanoids are two more phytonutrients that are crucial for skin appearance and are present in plants. Flavanoids are good for your blood vessels. They preserve cellular membranes while also strengthening capillaries, which supply vital nutrients to skin cells. Healthy cell membranes regenerate quickly, reducing the ageing process. Carotenoids also aid to maintain the integrity of cell membranes. Carrots appear to be healthy in a variety of ways. Flavanoids also help to reduce inflammation by increasing the antioxidant glutathione levels in the body.
