AGING, EATING BACK THE YEARS

When Jeanne Louise Calment was born, Ulysses S. Grant was still president, and Vincent Van Gogh was buying colored pencils in her father's store in France. Calment, who lived to be 122, holds the record as the oldest person on Earth, having beaten the average life expectancy by 45 years.

Most of us can expect to live about 75 years. While that's just a drop in the bucket for the likes of Calment, it's still almost 20 years longer than the average life span just a few generations ago.

Every year, people are living just a little bit longer. This is partly due to our success in battling childhood diseases like polio as well as adult conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. But it's also because scientists are unlocking the secrets of aging itself. We're finding out why our bodies break down and how to put the brakes on our own destruction. In the process we're expanding not only our life spans but also what scientists call our health spans—the number of years that we can expect to live in robust good health.

"Once we can understand and manage the ways in which our bodies generate harmful molecules, which are major factors in biological aging, we will be able to reach out and grasp that 120 -year life span, says William Regelson, M.D., professor of medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine in Richmond.

THE POWER OF ANTIOXIDANTS

Researchers have finally identified one of the most important contributors to heart disease, wrinkles, cancer, arthritis, and many of the other problems of aging. "We rust," says Dr. Regelson.

Ironically, the same air that gives us life is what causes iron to rust, fruit to turn brown, and our bodies' cells to break down and age. Through a series of chemical changes, oxygen molecules in our bodies lose electrons, making them unstable. These unstable molecules are called free radicals.

In frantic attempts to stabilize themselves, free radicals pillage electrons from healthy cells throughout your body. Every time they steal an electron, two things happen: A healthy molecule is damaged, and more free radicals are created. Unless this process is stopped, an increasing number of cells is damaged every day, and our health pays the price.

To keep this destructive process under control, nature created an enormous arsenal of antioxidants, which are compounds in foods that can stop free radicals from doing harm. Antioxidants come between free radicals and your body's healthy cells, offering up their own electrons and preventing yours from being, pillaged.

Even though the body naturally produces its own antioxidants, studies clearly show that the antioxidants in foods offer superior protection. Three of the strongest antioxidants are beta -carotene and vitamins C and E. Each of these nutrients has been shown to be very effective against age -related illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Although you can get some protection by taking antioxidant supplements, most doctors agree that the antioxidants in foods are a better choice and should be your first line of defense.

"The problem is, if you take too much of one antioxidant, the others shut down," explains Richard Cutler, Ph.D., former research chemist at the Gerontology Research Center of the National Institute on Aging and founder of Genox Corporation, which investigates strategies for stopping free radical damage, both in Baltimore. "It's best to get them through foods like fruits and vegetables, where they exist in the proportions nature intended."

Since so many foods are loaded with antioxidants, you really don't need to take supplements anyway. The quickest way to get vitamin C, for example, is to have a glass of grapefruit juice, an orange, or a half -cup of sweet red peppers, each of which provides more than 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV). For beta -carotene, deep green or bright orange fruits and vegetables are your best picks. One sweet potato or large carrot delivers between 12 and 15 milligrams, slightly more than the 6 to10 milligrams that experts recommend we get.

Unlike vitamin C and beta -carotene, vitamin E is a bit trickier to get from foods because it's found mainly in high -fat foods, such as vegetable oils, that we'd rather avoid. Still, you can get quite a bit of vitamin E in wheat germ, with V4 cup providing 4 milligrams, 20 percent of the DV. Nuts and seeds are also good sources of vitamin E.

Even though these three are essential antioxidants, they're not the only ones. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with plant compounds called phytonutrients, which also have antioxidant abilities. Some phytonutrients have been shown to disable cancer -causing substances as well.

In a study at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, researchers found that people who got the most glutathione, a phytonutrient found in avocados, grapefruit, winter squash, oranges, tomatoes, and potatoes, had lower blood pressures and cholesterol levels and maintained healthier weights than folks who got the least.

"Getting enough of all of these antioxidants won't guarantee that you'll live to be 150," says Dr. Cutler. "But they will help you reach your maximum life span, and with some people only living to 60, adding another 15 years is quite nice."

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