Today’s Solutions: July 18, 2025

We recently 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 a little protein that delays 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 commonly 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.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Barbie debuts first doll with type 1 diabetes, boosting visibility and inclusion

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Mattel introduced its first-ever Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes in an effort to improve representation and produce ...

Read More

8 weekend rituals successful people embrace to recharge and thrive

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Weekends often arrive like a sigh of relief after a long, demanding week. And while the idea of ...

Read More

Jigsaw puzzles: A hobby that’s great for your brain

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In our ever-increasing digital society, puzzling is the perfect activity to unplug and improve your mental and physical ...

Read More

How meditation helps the mindset of people coping with disease

Keeping our spirits up is important for all of us, no matter the task at hand, and that's easy to forget sometimes as we ...

Read More