5 anti-ageing diet rules for a beautiful summer

Because what you eat and when you eat it can be more effective than the fanciest face cream

June is the new January over here at Healthy HQ. We didn’t spend the first month of 2015 on a juice fast, or get up in the dark every morning to run a 10k before work. We’re human. That’s why we’re choosing June – a month of long evenings and sunny lunch breaks when you actually want to eat a salad – to get our bodies in their best ever shape.
And while we don’t really do diets (we’re much more about eating clean and living by the 80:20 rule), we’re always sniffing out new thinking that goes beyond ‘eat less, exercise more’.
And we got plenty after chatting with actress Glynis Barber, (who is literally glowing at 59) and her nutritionist Fleur Borrelli. The pair have just released The In-Sync Diet: The Age-burning, Fat-busting Plan That Optimises Health (Indie, £14.99). The deal? A plan with no calorie restrictions which promises to halt the ageing process far more effectively than the latest serum.

‘We’re living in a toxic world, where people have so many problems with weight, hormones, and their health – and where everyone is medicated,’  explains Barber. ‘But by eating and exercising in a right way, at the right times, you can get your body back in sync, your energy levels will be transformed and everything starts working properly.’

Sounds good right? Here are their five lessons that we’ll be taking on.

1. Exercise before you eat

‘It doesn’t have to be big. Run upstairs, or around the block, do some push ups – just do some movement before you eat. Think of hunger as a signal to move, not eat – and you’ll burn fat, not calories for energy. Our ancestors would have seen it as a signal to find food or water. Now we eat or drink not because we’re hungry or thirsty, but in case we become so, and that messes up the whole signalling in the body, and can cause inflammation which leads to weight gain.’

2. Re-think your staples

‘My hero foods are cruciferous green vegetables, which are great for detoxing the system, and healthy fats. All veggies are good other than potatoes and corn, which are very starchy, though sweet potatoes are fine in moderation. But avoid sugar, it causes havoc and inflammation like nothing else. And it’s addictive. If I start eating sugar, I just want more and more.’

3. Fast between meals

‘I used to think I needed to eat every three hours to keep my blood sugar levels stable. But bodies are cleverer than that. Cutting down to two or three meals is like a mini-fast for the body, which is good for anti-ageing. Each time we eat we have cell regeneration and we’ve only got a finite number of cells. The theory is that by reducing meal frequency we slow down the faster cell regeneration that speeds up our ageing process.’

4. But when you eat, eat like you mean it

‘I don’t eat breakfast, but I’ll have a really good lunch – a huge salad with olives, avocado, a whole tin of tuna or smoked salmon with a lovely vinaigrette. I’ll have some boiled eggs on the side for added protein, then I’ll have mango or coconut chunks which satisfy my very sweet tooth.’

5. Go long

‘The best way of losing that fat around your middle is to work up to endurance activities – what we call the slow workout. It could be running, cycling – or even walking at a fast pace for a long time, whatever makes it easier. Do it in a fasted state and you’ll burn the fat stores around your middle.’