It’s been decades since my parents, Chef Ira and The Gardener, first coined a name for the way they eat. They called it the wrinkle-free diet. Though it started as a joke, an answer to the fact that they didn’t seem to be aging as quickly as their friends, it did not stay a joke for long. The magic of their wrinkle-free diet, it turns out, happens not on the surface, nor in the words themselves, but deep inside, through changes to the section of chromosomes called telomeres.

Telomeres are tiny caps that protect the ends of chromosomes from damage; and longer is better. Telomeres are shortened by tobacco, sugar, white flour, trans fat, chronic stress, loneliness, and depression. Short telomeres are associated with aging, cancer, dementia, and even premature death

But long telomeres do the opposite. Walking the walk, eating nutritious food, and catching enough zzzzz’s actually increase telomere length. Eating real food, making opportunities to move, protecting time for rest and relaxation, and surrounding yourself with loving friends and family definitely make you healthier. In fact, it appears that these choices may even reverse aging.

Dr. Dean Ornish was the first to show that telomeres can grow longer. He set up a study to measure the telomeres of thirty-five men with low-risk prostate cancer, under active surveillance. They were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of ten men who were taught to eat a plant-based diet, get some exercise, spend time with friends, and do mindfulness training with yoga, meditation, or other stress-management strategy. The other fifteen guys got a friendly pat on the back. See ya later. 

Five years later, researchers again checked the telomeres on all thirty-five original study participants. The intervention group’s telomeres had increased by an average of ten percent. The telomeres of the men in the second group had shrunk by an average of three percent.  

Sobering for sure, but, most importantly, it’s not too late. 

Interestingly, telomere lengthening also correlated with the amount of clean living. The more beneficial lifestyle changes made by participants in the first group, the longer their telomeres were. Accordingly, then, our genes are predisposition, but not our fate.