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Filling you could he Cupboards

In her early 50s, Susan Saunders felt burned out and exhausted after years spent working, bringing up children and caring for her elderly and unwell parents.

The TV producer began scouring 50,000 science papers covering all aspects of ageing to see if she could find out how to live a longer, more contented life. Here she shares what she learned about the foods you should be eating to give yourself the best chance of staying healthy, happy and disease-free through the decades.

SERVING FACTS Susan

Tinned beans

These are your best friends when you need to get a meal on the table fast. Keep a variety in the store cupboard: black beans, butter beans, chickpeas, blackeyed beans and kidney beans are great foods to help you age well. Beans and pulses are particularly high in fibre, something most of us lack.

Our gut microbiota ferments the resistant starch in beans to create a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate, which is important for brain health as we age. It helps neurons regenerate and keeps them “plastic” – which helps the brain’s ability to form new connections.

Extra-virgin olive oil

The liquid gold of the Mediterranean diet. A four-year clinical study of f older adults at risk of heart art disease found that those e eating an olive oil-rich Mediterranean diet had

30% fewer instances of heart attacks, strokes and memory loss.

The oil also triggers autophagy, the body’s cellular spring-cleaning process, which clears out damaged DNA. And like the natural compound pterostilbene in blueberries, it helps to repair damaged genetic material.

Two to three tablespoons a day will make a difference to your health.

Raw cacao

You don’t need to load up on so-called superfoods to be healthy, but cacao powder and nibs earn their place ce in the age-well larder.

Cacao is the raw cocoa bean, with all the health benefits but none of the extra sugar and fat of chocolate. It’s packed with magnesium, which can benefit sleep, calcium for bone strength, and antioxidants. As we metabolise oxygen and food, our cells produce waste in the form of unpaired electrons, known as free radicals.

With age, our bodies become less efficient at mopping up excess free radicals, which results in something called oxidative stress, which can harm cells and DNA and, in turn, contribute to ageing. Antioxidants help prevent this cellular damage. b

There’s a huge uge variety to choose hoose from but Brazil razil nuts are an age-well well favourite. They hey are a fantastic source of f selenium l – another powerful antioxidant that may stop inflammation caused by viruses, help keep the heart healthy, and protect the brain.

Research has found Alzheimer’s patients have lower levels of selenium.

Always keep a supply of walnuts too. They contain more alpha-Linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid vital for brain health, than any other nut.

Edamame beans eans

These beans are now easily found in the freezer section at supermarkets and are a great source of polyamines, substances that help plants grow and, in turn, help our cells survive.

One polyamine, spermidine, may help regulate our circadian rhythms, the internal body clocks that control our sleep and waking patterns. As we get older, these clocks slow down, causing us sleep problems, but spermidine reverses the decline.

The Mediterranean diet contains twice the polyamines of the average British diet, which may explain why it’s so powerful for healthy ageing.