{"id":112362,"date":"2025-05-18T18:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T18:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112362\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T18:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T18:32:13","slug":"my-ultimate-3-step-science-backed-guide-on-how-to-eat-walk-and-sleep-yourself-young-by-sandra-parsons-whose-lifestyle-tweaks-have-given-her-a-biological-age-of-20-at-61","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112362\/","title":{"rendered":"My ultimate 3-step science-backed guide on how to eat, walk and sleep yourself young, by SANDRA PARSONS, whose lifestyle tweaks have given her a biological age of 20 – at 61"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the Middle Ages, alchemists believed that if they could only find the mythical Philosopher\u2019s Stone they could use it to produce the elixir of life and live forever.<\/p>\n

Today, not much has changed. Billionaires like Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos<\/a> hire the world\u2019s most brilliant scientists to find out how to live for as long as possible, while longevity clinics are opening up in the planet\u2019s richest capital cities to cater to the one per cent.<\/p>\n

London<\/a> alone boasts several, from the Hooke in Mayfair, where the top-tier membership is \u00a354,000 per year, to the (slightly) more accessible Solice around the corner, where annual membership comes in at just under \u00a310,000.<\/p>\n

You would be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to longevity it\u2019s a rich man\u2019s (or<\/p>\n

woman\u2019s) world. But I have cheering news. It doesn\u2019t matter if you can\u2019t afford any of the above. Because I\u2019ve spent years reading the research of all these top scientists and I am here to tell you that all of us can adopt their methods and advice for very little money.<\/p>\n

Yesterday in the Daily Mail I told how I discovered at the age of 61 that my biological age \u2013 the age that defines how well my body is ageing \u2013 is just 20. Yes, I\u2019m 61 on the outside but 20 inside!<\/p>\n

\"Sandra <\/p>\n

Sandra Parson turned around her health in her early 40s \u2013 and reversed the ageing clock \u2013 by changing the way she ate, moved and rested<\/p>\n

Despite spending much of my adulthood smoking, stressed, eating ready meals and doing no exercise at all, I completely turned around my health in my early 40s \u2013 and reversed the ageing clock \u2013 using a three-pronged approach backed by science.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By changing the way I ate, moved and rested, I revolutionised my life and gave myself the best possible chance of living to a ripe and healthy old age. And you can too.<\/p>\n

EAT LESS<\/p>\n

One of the first experts I turned to was Dr Valter Longo, professor of gerontology and biological sciences and director of the University of Southern California Longevity Institute in LA. He believes the key to anti-ageing lies in fasting.<\/p>\n

When we restrict what we eat, and therefore limit the energy coming into our body, we force our cells to eat parts of themselves in order to survive \u2013 but only the parts that no longer function well.<\/p>\n

The scientific word for this is autophagy. It comes from Greek: autos (self) and phagomai (to eat) \u2013 literally, self eating.<\/p>\n

Then, when we eat again, the body goes into overdrive, replacing, repairing and renewing cells, which in turn means we become healthier, stronger \u2013 and, yes, younger.<\/p>\n

Caloric restriction \u2013 cutting back what we eat \u2013 has the same effect. Dr Longo has studied caloric restriction for more than three decades and is clear that, with the right nutrition and fasting, we can optimise our chances of staying fully functional into our 90s, 100s and beyond. The brilliant news is you don\u2019t have to fast for long or cut back by much to get the desired effects.<\/p>\n

The most comprehensive and extensive study on caloric restriction shows that you only have to cut your calories by 10 to 12 per cent to drastically reduce your biological age \u2013 and improve everything from your cardio-vascular health to cutting your risk of diabetes and dementia.<\/p>\n

For most of us that\u2019s not much at all: the rough equivalent of three chocolate chip cookies or a small portion of McDonald\u2019s fries.<\/p>\n

\"Three <\/p>\n

Three to four hours of moderate exercise a week \u2013 cycling, rowing, weight training, whatever you like most \u2013 is likely to reduce a woman\u2019s risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 per cent, and both men and women\u2019s risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 per cent<\/p>\n

HOW DO WE DO IT?<\/p>\n

1. Eat more fibre<\/p>\n

A high-fibre diet is an effortlessly effective way of cutting your calories. Put simply, eating more plants means you feel fuller for longer and so you eat less.<\/p>\n

In fact, fibre offers many of the same health benefits as caloric restriction.<\/p>\n

It is the most anti-inflammatory food there is, improving gut and heart health, blood sugar control and immune function and lowering \u2018bad\u2019 cholesterol and the risk of several cancers, including colorectal, breast, pancreatic and bladder cancer, and helping with weight management.<\/p>\n

A review of more than a dozen international studies showed that increasing fibre by just 14g a day leads to weight loss of 1.9kg (4lb) in less than four months \u2013 without changing anything else that you normally eat.<\/p>\n

See the box, below, for the top 20 highest fibre foods \u2013 and eat more of them!<\/p>\n

2. Practise a very manageable form of Time Restricted Eating (TRE)<\/p>\n

A mild form of fasting, TRE involves increasing your overnight no-food window from an average 8 to 10 hours to 12. You can do this by either eating your last meal of the day earlier or delaying your breakfast, or both.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you can\u2019t do this every day \u2013 you need to be able to have a late dinner here and there, or go to a party when you want to. But on ordinary days at home, it simply means having no snacks or treats after your evening meal.<\/p>\n

For me, I find what works best is a 14-hour window: no food after 8.30 or 9pm, and none the next day before 10.30 or 11am, which is when I have breakfast (at my desk, usually).<\/p>\n

Note, I\u2019m not skipping breakfast altogether \u2013 there\u2019s increasing evidence that doing so is bad for you \u2013 just eating it later than the usual time.<\/p>\n

MOVE MORE<\/p>\n

\u2018WHEN it comes to exercise, what everyone wants to know is, \u201chow little can I do?\u201d,\u2019 says Professor Bill Kraus, a cardiologist at Duke University in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

And the answer is… to reduce your chances of dying early by almost a third (30 per cent), you only have to walk a mile every day (that\u2019s around 2,000 steps).<\/p>\n

There. It doesn\u2019t matter if you were rubbish at sport at school, always got picked last for the team, can\u2019t run to catch a bus… whatever. You can walk one mile. Though you do have to walk briskly. It can\u2019t be an indolent stroll.<\/p>\n

The reason this works mathematically is that both US and UK national guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week, which in walking terms \u2018is about 3 miles an hour\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Every mile is around 2,000 steps,\u2019 says Dr Kraus. \u2018So if we are telling people to do two and a half hours of moderate intensity physical activity a week at 3 miles an hour, that calculates out to 7 miles a week or 2,000 steps a day.\u2019<\/p>\n

These need to be in addition to the steps you take in normal daily life, by the way (which add up to about another 5,000 on average). It does have to be an intentional \u2018extra\u2019 walk!<\/p>\n

Of course, more exercise equates to greater benefits still.<\/p>\n

According to one estimate, three to four hours of moderate exercise a week \u2013 cycling, rowing, weight training, whatever you like most \u2013 is likely to reduce a woman\u2019s risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 per cent, and both men and women\u2019s risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

Exercise is probably the single best thing you can do to keep your brain healthy, too.<\/p>\n

Studies using MRI scans show that aerobic exercise can reverse age-related shrinkage in the brain\u2019s memory centres, as well as improve blood flow in the brain and help preserve brain tissue.<\/p>\n

In fact, along with cardio and resistance exercise (any form of weight-bearing exercise) there is a third form of workout we should all be doing called \u2018neuromotor exercise\u2019.<\/p>\n

Neuromotor exercise is anything that requires you to move while also having to think, and it\u2019s extremely good for our brains. Yoga, Pilates and tai chi come under this umbrella, as do racket sports \u2013 tennis, padel, pickleball, badminton, squash \u2013 and martial arts.<\/p>\n

Dance is also neuromotor exercise and according to a recent study the one that works your brain the most.<\/p>\n

(If you doubt this, try going to dance classes to learn a complicated series of steps and see how well you get on.)<\/p>\n