The Best Anti-Aging Foods for Women

If you want to know about the top anti-aging foods for women, these foods help everything from skin to heart health.

Watch TV commercials or flip through any women’s magazine, and you’ll likely get bombarded with ads for anti-aging creams.

While slathering on these lotions can help your skin stay in top shape, you’ll also want to keep aging at bay from the inside out—with what you put on your plate.

Before you get all bummed out about aging, let me tell you this is your chance to change how you age. The older I get, the happier I feel.

At this point in my life (in my 30s!), I know what foods my body needs for fuel and how to keep it active with exercise. I show it plenty of self care and compassion, too.

So is it so strange that my subjective age, the age that I feel, is lower than the age I actually am? Nope. I truly believe that treating your body with kindness and respect helps you age gracefully.

Yup, you can get nourishment from nutrient-rich foods that will help your mind and eyes stay sharp. What you eat can even help your skin stay smooth and your hair stay shiny, too. How cool is that?!

So read on, get an easy-to-follow list of anti-aging foods for women, plus a primer on anti-aging nutrition and how eating the right foods will help you look younger. 

The basics of anti-aging nutrition

When it comes to taking care of your mind and body, there’s so much you can do—including what you do for stress relief and what you eat.

Whether you’re thinking about skin health, brain power, inflammation, or gut health, there are lots of secrets that’ll help you age gracefully.

My personal secrets? It comes down to eating nutritious meals and taking the time for self care.

I find that acupuncture, Pilates, and even playing fetch with my cats (it’s more like I fetch the mice for my cats, but whatever, I get stress relief and exercise!) are all incredibly stress-relieving activities.

You know I love to talk about the many benefits of a healthy diet, and today’s no different! I’m spilling all the secrets about what to eat to look younger, complete with an anti-aging food list.

Knowing about these anti-aging foods for women will make your next grocery trip super seamless.

5 anti-aging foods for women

Turns out that beans, tomatoes, and other foods eaten on a Mediterranean diet might help us stay healthy as we age. Here are a handful of the best anti-aging foods for women.

1. Oatmeal

Regularly dig into a morning bowl of oatmeal and berries—and you may age more successfully, suggests research.

Specifically, if you eat fiber-rich foods such as rolled oats, whole-grain bread, and fruit regularly, you have a better chance of getting to older age sans major health issues like depression, cancer, or heart disease, reveals research in The Journals of Gerontology.

In the study, people who had the lowest fiber intake had a 65 percent increased risk of dying, versus subjects with the highest intake.

Now, this definitely makes oats one of the top anti-aging foods for women! Enjoy them in overnight oats, a cherry oatmeal bowl, or a vegan berry crumble.

2. Tomatoes

A tomato gets its red color from a compound called lycopene.

“Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that may help combat exposure and damage from UV light, which we know is bad for our skin and overall youthful appearance,” says Emily Kyle, MS, RDN, author of The 30-Minute Thyroid Cookbook.

Antioxidants provide anti-inflammatory benefits by helping to fight free radicals, which can cause damage. Talk about keeping your skin cells healthy!

Try the cooked version for the biggest benefit: One study in The British Journal of Dermatology found that the body may better absorb lycopene from cooked tomatoes—i.e., tomato paste—versus fresh.

More research is needed, and older adults may need to discuss use of a lycopene supplement with their healthcare provider. Tomatoes also provide beta carotene, which provides eye health benefits.

To make the most of this anti-aging food for women, enjoy tomatoes on a pizza or in a veggie bowl.

3. Beans

Eat a lentil salad or rice and beans, and you could potentially help boost your brain health and increase your lifespan.

“Diets higher in beans have been shown to help slow cognitive decline,” says Maggie Moon, MS, RDN, author of The Telomere Diet and Cookbook.

In a study in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry of Taiwanese age 65 years and older, researchers found that infrequent intake of beans and legumes may negatively impact cognitive function.

“Of course, beans are also packed with fiber, potassium, and plant protein,” Moon says, who notes her favorites are chickpeas, lentils for quick cooking, and black beans for an anthocyanin boost.

Yup, beans are an excellent source of protein! Make a batch of crispy chickpeas, or make lentils and egg toast.

4. Fatty fish

Besides adipose tissue, the brain is the fattiest organ in the body. And 50 percent of the brain’s building block is fat.

That’s why it’s essential to keep the brain fueled with EPA and DHA throughout every stage of the life cycle, from infancy to older age.

Here’s some awesome news for your mental health: Getting your daily fill of EPA and DHA could help improve memory as you get older.

This was evident in a review study in PLOS One, showing that daily intake of DHA and EPA helped improve memory function in older adults who complained of mild memory issues! Talk about an anti-aging food for women!

Omega-3s also help heart health. EPA and DHA can help heart health. In fact, one study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings revealed that higher EPA and DHA levels are linked with lower risk of heart disease.

If you’re looking to use omega-3s to help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, you’ll want to look at an amount of 1,000 mg daily.

As well, a larger intake—more than 1,000 milligrams (mg) daily—has been found to help lower blood pressure and benefit triglyceride levels. Make sure to get an annual physical, too.

How to fight inflammation with food? To get the amount of omega-3s needed to help boost brain health—and overall health—aim for at least two 3.5-ounce servings of cooked fatty fish weekly.

Enjoy fish in a casserole, or make roasted salmon or salmon bacon.

Or you can opt for a daily supplement that provides at least 250 mg of EPA and DHA. Just make sure to read the supplements facts label to determine this amount. Unfortunately, front-of-package numbers can be misleading.

5. Milk

I have a pretty strong family history of heart disease, so I’m always seeking out new ways to make my diet heart healthy. I’ve always been a big dairy fan.

And now a study shows how this food group may be able to help keep our tickers healthy, revealing how milk can be a top anti-aging food for women.

Researchers looked at the dairy intake of more than 37,000 middle- to older-age Chinese adults who didn’t have a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, or cancer, in a study in The Journal of Nutrition.

The findings: Regular intake of dairy, especially milk, was connected with a lower risk of high blood pressure.

People who drank milk daily had about an 80 percent lower risk of hypertension, versus the non-milk drinkers. High blood pressure may cause damage to your circulatory system that may lead to a heart attack, stroke, or other health problems.

Milk offers many important nutrients, such as filling protein, bone-building calcium, and blood-pressure-helping potassium.

Plus, most milk is fortified with vitamin D, a nutrient of concern to the general U.S. population. Vitamin D helps promote calcium absorption to help keep your bones strong—and research suggests it may play a role in better heart health.

When you’re watching your weight, milk is an especially great addition to your diet because it provides a lot of nutrients for a smallish amount of calories. Add it to a homemade latte or smoothie.

Final thoughts

When it comes to the top anti-aging foods for women, you have many to pick from. These foods benefit skin health, heart health, and more.

Some of this content was originally part of a partnership with the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s.

Sources

• Association Between Carbohydrate Nutrition and Successful Aging Over 10 Years, The Journals of Gerontology
• Emily Kyle, MS, RDN, author of The 30-Minute Thyroid Cookbook
• Tomato Paste Rich in Lycopene Protects Against Cutaneous Photodamage in Humans in Vivo: a Randomized Controlled Trial, The British Journal of Dermatology
• Maggie Moon, MS, RDN, author of The Telomere Diet and Cookbook
• A study in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 
• A review study in PLOS One
• A study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings
• A study in The Journal of Nutrition

Which of these anti-aging foods are you going to reach for next? What would you add to this anti-aging food list?