In my late teens, I met a lady called Emily who was 50 years old. She was the mother of my sisters boyfriend, at the time. She looked good for her age, a refined 50 year old.. exactly how I would like to look when I am that age. One day when I was at her house, Emily's sister was there. Her sister looked very similar to Emily, but about 10 years older, so I had her pegged as Emily's elder sister.

But what I discovered next was set to change my thinking forever:

She was an IDENTICAL TWIN!!!

I was totally shocked! Literally she looked 60 while Emily looked about 45. The difference? Smoking. The older looking twin smoked, the other did not.

At that age it did wake me up to the fact that daily habits such as smoking cannot be seen in the short term, but over a lifetime clearly add up to aged skin, lines and general bad health - and looking older then your years.

BUT the more interesting thing I learnt had nothing to do with smoking!

It always made me wonder, being a scientist myself, how smoking, UV rays from the sun, pollution, stress and excessive exercise can all lead to similar ailments, including of course premature aging. Particularly UV rays and smoking - how do they cause the same effect in the body? Then one day a few years back I met a German scientist who explained everything. The feeling was one of a TOTAL understanding of the body, yet the concept was so simple!

Smoking itself does not age you - I mean don't get me wrong there are many affects of smoking, but one effect was particularly important. Smoking and UV rays as well as other things, cause a huge increase in molecules in the body called FREE RADICALS. The body produces these normally, however activities such as smoking increase the levels to dangerous amounts. These free radicals in turn INCREASE the normal rate of mutations that occur in the body.

Just to clarify, for a moment: the body is always in a state of renewal. Constantly duplicating its cells and then killing the old ones. It makes exact replicas of itself to do this. BUT over time errors occur (mutations) - and this is the NORMAL AGING PROCESS.

Now these free radical molecules SPEED UP the mutations, and therefore SPEED UP AGING.

I then learnt about anti oxidants. Antioxidants 'mop up' free radicals in the body. We get them from fruit and vegetables in the diet and they form our protection.

SO... it is NOT smoking, per say, but the fact that it INCREASES production of free radicals in the body and these go around INCREASING the rate of mutation in our cells which is the main cause of aging. You got it!

and... anti oxidants, the natural nutrients found in fruit and vegetables can mop up these free radicals bringing them back into line.

So... you could say, the more we have things such as pesticides on food, UV rays because of the ozone layer, pollution we cannot avoid, and hectic stressful lifestyles (as well as cultural habits such as smoking or passive smoking) the MORE anti oxidants we need.

But. As we need MORE anti oxidants, the supply is going down. Why? Because of the global market for fruit and vegetables, most are picked when unripe (the full complex of anti oxidants and their required co factors do not get a chance to form) and then shipped in gas storage around the world. All this means the nutritional value decreases. And that is in the fresh, natural produce. Add to that the fact that most of us eat in our diet mostly processed food (nutrients dead) - and there is a real problem.

When I found all this I realised something.

If Emilys sister is the real life example of what a higher level of free radicals does to you over time - increasing the aging process - surely the more anti oxidants we eat from a natural source, the more likely we are to be the REVERSE of Emily's sister, and look 10 years YOUNGER when we are 50! I'll drink my fruit and vegetable juices to that!