On Tuesday, we published a story about how eating bitter melon can improve longevity. Remaining within the topic of healthy aging, today we bring you five more foods that can support your body and mind as you grow older. The common theme between these five foods is that they are sirtuin-activating foods, also known as “sirtfoods.” 

Now you might be asking: what is sirtuin? Sirtuin is little proteins that delay the shortening of telomeres, aka the DNA “caps” at the ends of a chromosome. Since the natural process of aging is due to telomere shortening, eating foods that activate sirtuins can help support healthy aging and a faster metabolism. Here below you’ll find 5 sirtuin-activating foods.

Capers: What’s great about these little buds is that they’re full of quercetin, a polyphenol compound found to increase sirtuin activity. Quercetin has also been found to have protective properties against a number of diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even asthma.

Celery: The flavonoids apigenin and luteolin are common found in celery, both of which are nutrients known to activate sirtuin.

Green tea: The beauty of green tea is that it’s rich with phytochemicals like epigallocatechin gallate (aka, EGCG) and L-theanine. If you aren’t familiar with these healthy phytochemicals (we don’t expect you to be), they have been shown to have significant effects on longevity. In fact, one study found that participants who drank five or more cups of green tea per day had a 16% lower risk of cardiovascular death and a 26% lower risk of dying from any cause, compared to those who drank less than one cup per day. 

Cilantro: Just like capers, cilantro also contains quercetin. Another plus is that cilantro has been shown to lower blood sugar by activating enzymes that remove sugar from the blood.

Strawberries: Our first non-green food item on the list, strawberries contain the sirtuin-activating compound fisetin, which research has shown can stimulate the brain-signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory.