I Reversed People’s Biological Age By 3 Years, Thanks To These Epinutrients

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January 12, 2022 — 10:01 AM

In a 2021 study, naturopathic doctor and functional medicine expert Kara Fitzgerald, N.D., author of Younger You, was able to improve participants’ biological age by three years. Sounds like a tall order, but the intervention was actually pretty simple: With a very doable diet and exercise plan, it only took eight weeks to see these results. “A big reason we actually made a difference in eight weeks’ time is because we very intentionally bathed the body in a high amount of epinutrients,” she says on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. 

What are epinutrients, you ask? Allow Fitzgerald to explain below, along with a few of her favorites. 

Epinutrients play a very big role in DNA methylation. See, methylation is an important biochemical process that helps optimize gene expression, health outcomes, and, yes, aging (read more about it here). And while supplying your body with methyl donors—like beets, cruciferous veggies, and eggs, if you can tolerate them—is crucial for improving your methylation pathways, Fitzgerald says you don’t want to just be pushing methylation forward all the time. “You want to give it information about where to go,” she says. 

“Yes, we need a robust methyl donor intake, but we also need to direct the behavior of these methyl groups,” Fitzgerald continues. And it turns out, epinutrients can do just that: “These exquisite compounds direct methylation traffic,” she adds. “So you want an abundance of methyl donors, but you want it with these traffic directors, these [epinutrients].” 

You may hear the term methylation adaptogens tossed around, which is another scientific term for these epinutrients—just like how other adaptogens “adapt” to what your body needs in order to manage stress, these epinutrients help balance the methylation cycle. 

On a final note: These have pretty science-forward names, as we’re calling out the specific nutrients that, as Fitzgerald notes, are “epigenetically active.” Don’t worry, though: We’ll give a few examples of foods that feature these powerful players: 

Anthocyanins are what give berries their red, blue, or purple pigments—think blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and pomegranates. These flavonoids likely play an important role in brain and overall health, and research has associated a link between anthocyanins and healthy aging.* “Choose a variety of berries, including blackberries, black currants, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries,” Fitzgerald writes. “Smaller, wild varieties often have high concentrations of epigenetic adaptogens.” 

When cruciferous veggies crop up in conversation, you may associate them with the powerful antioxidant sulforaphane—but the compound diindolylmethane (DIM) is also found in cruciferous vegetables, and it’s shown to balance estrogen levels in the body and support overall hormonal, ovarian, and prostate health.