Can you eat yourself young?

RW DIGESTS THE SOLID SCIENCE BEHIND THE TANTALISING HEADLINES TO FIND OUT HOW WHAT'S ON YOUR PLATE AND WHAT ISN'T CAN KEEP MIND, BODY AND SOLES FITTER IN THE LONG RUN

- MEGAN TATUM

Taken at face value, the marketing hype in the nutrition business would have you believe that food is the cellular equivalent of formaldehyde. So seductive is the promise that ditching one type of food - or stocking up on another - could bag you a few extra birthdays that anti-ageing discoveries in nutrition regularly hit the front pages. But it's not all good news. One thoroughly depressing health story last year, based on a University College London review involving 135 000 people, was that Brits in their 40s and 50s are in far poorer health than the midlifers of the 2000s, and thus more vulnerable to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia earlier in life - and there's no reason to think South Africans are any different. While this trend obviously needs reversing ASAP, the conflicting findings and hyperbolic headlines common in nutritional science make the recipe for doing so harder to follow. After all, what makes for a good story doesn't always stack up when you read the small print. So, what of the news passes muster? We combed the journals and called on leading experts across the field of nutrition - and longevity- for answers you can trust.

01 THE HEADLINE

Intermittent fasting can keep your brain and body young

THE STORY