Reader's Digest
July 3, 2001

Fight Wrinkles With Food

Want to fight wrinkles? The more vegetables, olive oil, fish, peas and beans, and low-fat milk products people eat, the fewer wrinkles they get, reports the current (July/August) issue of Reader's Digest New Choices. A study of 450 Australians, Greeks, and Swedes 70 and older was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. It revealed that Greeks who ate a lot of green leafy vegetables and beans had fewer wrinkles than their fellow Greeks who ate processed meat, pudding, dessert, or butter. Australians who consumed sardines, asparagus, grapes, melons, multigrain bread and tea fared best in their country. So did Swedes who went easy on roast beef, fried potatoes, ice cream, jam and soft drinks but emphasized skim milk, low-fat yogurt, lima beans and spinach pie. Foods high in vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and zinc also seemed to protect the skin from wrinkles. Conversely, the more full-fat dairy foods, butter, margarine, red meat (especially processed meat), soft drinks, and cakes and pastries the participants allowed themselves, New Choices reports, the more wrinkled their skin.