5 WORST Foods For Men Over 40

If you’re still following the diet that worked for you during your 20s and 30s, you’re headed for trouble.

Truth is, you can get away with stuff early on that your body just can’t compensate for once you hit your 40s.

And that explains why you can keep doing everything “right” and yet your scale comes suddenly to a screeching halt, or worse—it’s moving in the wrong direction.

It’s worse than just getting fatter though. That’s just a symptom of much more dangerous stuff that’s happening inside your body when you eat those damaging foods you used to be able to handle.

I’m talking about the kinds of chemical, hormonal and cellular damage that can lead to cancer, high-blood pressure, heart disease, type-2 diabetes and all those other nasty doomsday diseases your doctor keeps warning you about.

And on the outside, you start seeing early wrinkles and skin blemishes, as well as premature balding and grey hair.

Not to worry though. The worst offenders are foods that are easy to cut back on or eliminate. And peeling a decade off your functional age is well worth it.

So stop eating these 5 most damaging foods for men over 40 to look and feel 10 years younger.

 

#1 Most Damaging Food: Soy

Did you know that soy mimics the “female” hormone estrogen in your body? That’s right, there are chemicals in soy that are part of a group of compounds called xenoestrogens that work just like estrogen in your body.

And yeah, that’s as bad as it sounds. It can cause men to develop feminine physical features like fatty tissue on the breasts and thighs. It can also cause health problems related to hormone imbalances.

Don’t worry though. Sushi night is not off limits. Properly fermented soy sauce is quite low on these xenoestrogens. So you can eat that and other fermented soy products guilt free.

 

#2 Most Damaging Food: Margarine

Did you know the walls of every cell in your body are made of fat? Yep, when your mom told you “you are what you eat,” she knew what she was talking about.

And did you know margarine is made of a highly processed type of fat that has been hydrogenated so that it won’t spoil and it will remain solid at room temperature?

The problem is, once it has been processed it’s more like a rigid plastic than a natural and flexible fat molecule. And when it gets integrated into your cell membranes it starts to make them stiff and brittle.

It gets harder for you to absorb nutrients and ship out waste from your cells. Which causes early aging and accelerated risk of diseases like cancer.

So keep trans fats and hydrogenated fats to a minimum in your diet. And make sure you’re eating a healthy balance of natural fats including saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

 

#3 Most Damaging Food: Fruit Juice

Fruit juice seems healthy, but the stuff you get from the grocery store is NOT a good choice for aging men. The spike in sugar is especially bad for men at risk of metabolic disorders like type-2 diabetes. In fact if you can pinch an inch on your belly, don’t ever drink processed, store-bought fruit juice.

Instead, stick to whole fruits or use them to blend a smoothie if you prefer to drink your produce. That way you can keep the fiber and still enjoy the juice.

In fact, recent scientific research reviews indicate that consuming plentiful whole fruits have a powerful beneficial effect on your gut health, which plays a key role in your hormone balance and other key health factors important as you age.

 

#4 Most Damaging Food: Non-organic Dairy

Every man hitting his 40s should be thinking about how to maintain higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of estrogen. That’s because once you hit 25 your levels start to slowly decline throughout your life.

And low testosterone in men is linked to weight gain, muscle loss, fatigue, depression and a bunch of health problems including heart trouble and cancer.

Remember how we talked about avoiding xenoestrogens in soy? Well, non-organic dairy products actually contain the real deal — estrogen and other hormones that are pumped into cows.

Non-organic milk is chock full of the hormones they give the cows to get them pumping out as much milk as possible. I think it goes without saying that as a man, you don’t want that kind of hormone raging through your body!

 

#5 Most Damaging Food: Too Much Booze

The science is pretty clear that an occasional drink can actually be pretty good for you for a lot of reasons. Benefits of light consumption include reduced heart failure risk, reduced heart attack risk, reduced stroke risk, reduced dementia risk, reduced diabetes risk.

However, too much booze plays havoc with the over-40 male body. Why?

In a word, testosterone. A night of heavy drinking will cause a significant drop in testosterone that can last for days. And habitual consumption of more than a drink or maybe two a day can cause chronic damage to the testicles and a drop in overall testosterone levels.

So enjoy the occasional drink without a worry. Just make sure you don’t go overboard.

 

Remember, your chronological age is just a number. What really counts is how old or young you feel and look. That’s your functional age. And the younger your functional age the more fun you get out of life.

Your nutrition, sleep, supplement and exercise habits have a direct effect on your functional age. And since you control those factors you can actively reverse aging in a very real sense.

Don’t allow yourself to accept excuses like “I’m getting too old for this.” Make the small choices that actually turn back the clock on your functional age so you can live the good life in your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.