meat altogether, but judging the health quality of a food
strictly by its AGE content would be a mistake. Broiled wild
salmon, for example, contains a considerable amount of
AGEs, and yet wild fish consumption has been associated
with healthy cognitive and cardiovascular aging in many
studies and trials. Additionally, many anthropologists
believe that it wasn’t just the consumption of meat but the
very act of cooking it that helped our ancestors to extract
more calories and nutrients from their food, allowing our
brains to reach their robust modern size. The safest way to
integrate meat products into your diet is to consume cuts
that are organic and grass-fed (or wild, if we’re talking fish),
which will ensure higher amounts of antioxidants, and to
use as little heat as possible (though, of course, you’ll need
to cook food thoroughly enough to avoid illness).
It’s also important to bear in mind that only between 10
and 30 percent of exogenous AGEs get absorbed into your
body. Antioxidant nutrients like polyphenols and fiber,
which are abundant in plant foods, can also neutralize these
aging toxins before they’re able to make it into your
system.^20 If you’d like to treat yourself to roasted chicken (a
fairly rich source of AGEs), for example, opting for a
heaping plate of dark leafy greens on the side might help
minimize the impact. This also helps broker a more pleasant
interaction between those AGEs and the trillions of bacteria
that reside in your gut—important players in your brain
function, as you’ll see.