Here's how the top vegetables stack up Photo by Anna Kaminova on Unsplash Vegetables are essential for well-balanced diets for their high load of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, and phytochemicals.
Right now, with the pandemic still active, salad vegetables play a more vital role than ever in our diet because of their capacity to improve our immune defences. They're also convenient since we can eat them as raw, so they present little challenge in preparing for our everyday meals. For example, a cold dish of various raw vegetables, seasoned with oil, vinegar or other dressings, can be quickly prepared. Just how vital are salad vegetables in our diet to overcome viral infections? Get the balance right, and live longer betterThe benefits of omega-3 fats from fatty fish and likely from plant sources like flaxseeds and walnuts are well known. After all, the media frequently talk about the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, and sales of fish oil supplements are more than $1 billion per year in the United States.
Omega-3 is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, and our only source is from food. Omega-6 is omega-3's cousin, also derived from the food we eat. The only difference between omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids is in the structure of their molecules. Both are essential. Our body cannot produce them, so we need to obtain them from our diet. It is not a matter of one of them being "better" than the other. We need both, and generally, we all need to eat more of them, as long as we don't get the ratio out of balance. An imbalance in our omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is associated with adverse health outcomes, potentially negating the overall benefits. For example, a high dietary intake of omega-6 induces a proinflammatory response (raising the level of chronic inflammation) whereas omega-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Exercise and healthy food count but there's an unexpected twist Photo by Zachary Nelson on Unsplash Scientists are increasingly discovering that the changes in the circadian rhythm as we age are associated with reduced longevity.
Normal, healthy aging is associated with a weakening of the circadian system. The first indication of damping of circadian rhythms with advancing age came from studies by Franz Halberg in the 1950s, on mice. We now know that circadian rhythm plays a vital role in health, and prolonged clock disruptions are associated with chronic diseases. Knowing how to boost strengthen the circadian rhythm may yet turn out to be as important as strengthening our muscles, for longer life. Until now, the taste of raw eggs made me sick Photo by Sebastian Coman Photography on Unsplash When younger, even the thought of raw egg would start my stomach churning. I couldn't comprehend how awful an eggnog must taste.
This month I replaced my usual morning proprietary protein share with - an eggnog! I couldn't believe how innocuous it tastes, and my nog is jam packed with protein. Until this month, I was using a proprietary protein shake with 36g of protein per serving, at a cost of $68 for 14 serves - about $5 per serve. It was a quality product, but in these times it pays to preserve cashflow even it means sacrificing some quality. Lower blood pressure and more flexible arteries Photo by petra cigale on Unsplash There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that dietary nitrate may have a protective role in health, in particular vascular health, and in particular by lowering blood pressure.
Coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and heart failure are three of the leading causes of death globally. Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are responsible for a significant (typically about 25%) of premature deaths, and the risk substantially increases with age. For such a major public health problem, it is perhaps surprising that by simply improved our diet quality - by eating more vegetables - we can substantially reduce the risk of dying early. The risk of obesity increases by 9% for each 1-hour decrease in sleep duration Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash Good quality sleep often alludes us, and poor sleep leads to various health problems (WebMD) such as heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.
Here's what you need to know to optimise your sleep duration and to minimise the risk of sleep-related obesity. Over nearly two decades, sleep has been increasingly recognised as a potential risk for obesity. For example, many observational studies have shown links between short sleep duration and weight gain. However, a recent study which sought to validate such prior studies found the evidence to be inconclusive. Despite the findings of the recent survey, there are plausible associations between good health and too little or too much sleep which are essential to know.  Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash Plus, to reduce risk of early death forget your weight and start measuring your waist, says global study of 2.5 million people[Copy of my weekly newsletter] Surprisingly, intermittent fasting has been found to improve our brain health and functioning - see #1. Forget the scales, measure your waist - check item #2. The pandemic has more people exercising - are you one of them? - item #3. The reverse lunge with front-kick is one of my fav movements, for all purposes - item #4. #staysafe #keepmoving #stayhealthy Here are my 4 Most Valuable pieces of content from around the web, to help you live longer better:
⭑ Your brain will stay brighter for longer if fasting is part of your life ⭑ Even if your BMI and weight is good your belly fat might kill you earlier ⭑ The ways we've reacted positively to the pandemic ⭑ Kicking your way to better balance and less hip pain Five ways to kick-start fasting to improve your cognitive fitness Photo by Viviana Rishe on Unsplash It's daunting to contemplate how to get started with intermittent fasting. It has become synonymous with keto and faddish diets and has elements of a cult - which turns people off. That's unfortunate because intermittent fasting can keep our brain functioning better for longer.
Here's how to get started, without having to "go keto" or remove yourself from family dinners. The reluctance to make fasting part of our lifestyle is not helped by the fact that until this year (2020), intermittent fasting was yet to be assessed in a rigorous clinical trial. The publication of a small "rigorous clinical trial" - just 58 subjects - reported "weight loss and improved cardiometabolic measures". Intermittent fasting (IF) diets fall generally into two categories: daily time-restricted feeding, which narrows eating times to 6-8 hours per day, and so-called 5:2 intermittent fasting, in which people limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days each week. Dr Mattson's two findings on how to live longer better Photo by Aleksandar Popovski on Unsplash After a lifetime studying the how aging and the brain interact, Dr Mark P Mattson recently retired from the National Institute on Aging. Dr Mattson is a renown expert in understanding neurobiological responses to physical exercise and dietary restriction and their relationship to ageing and age-related disease.
His two seminal findings can help us all live longer better. As we age, our brain inevitably loses its edge. But there is detailed research which shows two specific ways in which we can slow the rate of brain aging. Both are freely available and require no subscriptions, payment plans, nor coaches. If you eat farmed fish now then you've nothing to lose Photo by Vineeth Vinod on Unsplash In a mere five years, lab-grown salmon will be on the sushi conveyer-belt, at least if a number of startups have their way. Well, they will have their way. Like the coronavirus vaccine, it is only a matter of time.
In fact, Finless Foods was hoping to bring its cell-based bluefin tuna to market by the end of 2019. Although it hasn't entirely made it, it is very close and has served small select audiences its early production lab-grown shrimp. WildType, a startup making lab-grown salmon, has opened up a pre-order list for select chefs. Although the company is as much as five years out from commercial production, according to founders the company is looking to partner with chefs who want to incorporate WildType's sushi-grade salmon product into their menus. Could these lab-based meal creations be better for us than the real thing, and would you eat it? You might be surprised. |
ChoicesSince I was diagnosed at 50 with Type 2 diabetes I've been learning how to do bone-building fitness training which lowers my age. You can too. It's your choice. Walter Categories
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