Not many of us get enough fibre in our diets, but an added incentive to increase our intake comes from a study in Journals of Gerontology showing that it helps to slow ageing.

In 2020, researchers from the University of Navarra, warned that eating ultra-processed foods is linked to the accelerated shortening of telomeres, structures located at the ends of our chromosomes that are markers of our biological age.

They are rich sources of lutein, an antioxidant carotenoid that Dr Kara Fitzgerald, a researcher in nutritional biochemistry at the Institute for Functional Medicine in Washington, found to have a profound effect on slowing biological ageing.

Middle-aged adults who take this sweet spot of walking steps every day are 70% less likely to die at a younger than expected age than those who manage a lower daily total.

A single night of insufficient sleep can make an older adult’s cells age quicker, according to a study at UCLA. Not only that, but poor sleepers feel older and have a worse outlook on ageing, which ultimately affects their health.

Lift weights to preserve muscles and prevent falls, but keep up your cardio for anti-ageing effects.

Staying active throughout life keeps your body young, according to researchers. Exercise helps to prevent loss of muscle mass and keep your immune system young.

Dark berries are a rich source of anthocyanins, the antioxidants that give them their red and purple colour and which have been shown in studies to help to prevent age-related metabolic damage

Researchers reporting in the journal Food Chemistry hailed white button mushrooms as potent anti-ageing foods because of their high content of two antioxidants — ergothioneine and glutathione — shown to preserve cellular health.

Research in 2017 by the University of California, San Diego, found that women who spent 10+ hours a day sitting displayed DNA evidence indicating that they were physically 8 years older than women who exercised.

A diet rich in leafy greens, along with regular exercise and sleep, has been shown to help reverse ageing by two years in just eight weeks, by triggering changes to DNA methylation, a process that affects cell turnover.