7 Tips for Reducing AGEs in Your Food

The best strategies for limiting dietary AGEs are simple, cost-effective and consistent with dietary recommendations for good health.

Fill Plates with Fruits, Vegetables and Whole Grains

They are naturally low in AGEs, and animal foods are a significant contributor of dietary AGEs.

Marinate

Marinate meats in acidic compounds such as wine, vinegar or citrus juice. Acids inhibit the formation of AGEs. For example, beef marinated for an hour in a mixture of lemon juice and vinegar will produce fewer than half the AGEs when cooked compared to unmarinated meat.

Cook Low and Slow

A scrambled egg cooked over medium-low heat contains about half the AGEs of the same egg prepared over high heat. Fall is a great time to bring out the slow cooker! (Just don’t brown the meat first.)

Keep It Moist

Steam, stew, poach and braise meats instead of grilling, roasting, broiling or frying. Poaching or steaming chicken cuts AGEs by 75 percent compared to roasting or broiling.

Nuke It

Microwave-cooked foods produce less AGEs than foods cooked with other dry-heat methods.

Grill Corn, Fruits and Vegetables Instead of Meats

All grilled foods will contain more AGEs than raw foods or items cooked with moist heat, but plant foods contain much fewer AGEs than animal foods.

Cook More at Home

Heavily processed foods tend to contain more AGEs than whole and minimally processed foods, and cooking from scratch gives you the greatest control over how your meals are prepared.

Food & Nutrition Magazine

Food & Nutrition Magazine publishes articles on food and diet trends, highlights of nutrition research and resources, updates on public health issues and policy initiatives related to nutrition, and explorations of the cultural and social factors that shape Americans’ diets and health.