My stay-at-home exercise level is significantly less than when I was going to the gym three times a week. My weight is starting to creep up.

Here's how much less we need to eat, based upon our reduced level of #StayAtHome activity.

​I'm still exercising, but a lot less intensively than before stay-at-home. I was doing three intense gym visits and running 5km twice a week. 

Now I run more often, but don't have the gear and space to put in the maximum intensity I was doing at the gym.

In the swirl of debate about high and low protein diets and the necessary amount of protein, the wide-ranging role of protein for our health often gets scant attention. It's more than just for muscle.

Some government health guidelines recommend people over 50 increase their daily intake of protein. Usually, this recommendation is linked to sarcopenia - the loss of muscle as we age. 

Apparently, because we become less efficient at converting protein into muscle, we should have more to kick the process along. I'm not sure how that works in people who are not active, whether it helps or not.

But for active older people, like me, I think that we should have quite a lot more than the usual health official recommendations.

Prunes aren’t just for regular bowel movements.

Dried plums — or prunes — are among the highest antioxidant foods shown to help improve bone strength.

They have a unique nutrient and dietary bioactive profile and which exerts beneficial effects on bone. The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that over half of Americans age 50+ have either osteoporosis or low bone mass - a serious cause of loss of quality of life.

The beneficial effects of prunes on bone health is thought to be in part due to the variety of phenolics present in the fruit, which increase the mineral content in our bones.

In early studies the level of prune intake originally found to bone-enhancing was fairly high at 100 grams, or 9 to 10 prunes a day. 

Further research (2015) found that eating just 2 to 3 prunes a day helped reduce bone loss and increases bone density.  They found that in a study group of 65 to 80 year-olds, 5 to 6 prunes a day can be as effective as 10 to 12. That's good news, as I usually eat 5 or 6 a day!

(Just FYI, 1 prune has 23 calories, 6 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fibre.)

This week's 4 Most Valuable pieces of content that I found to help you live longer better (and might save you a little money). These four articles stood out to me this week:

1. Calcium tablets might cause you more harm than good
2. Running doesn't wreck your knees
3. How patting your skin can be used curatively
4. How to start exercising when you are unwell or unfit.

This is the first edition of my weekly 4 Most Valuable pieces of content I can find to help you live longer better.

I read a lot of articles each week. A lot are just factory-produced content for Google. A lot are search engine headlines with little substance. A lot do not gel with my 20 years of experience exercising and my Professional Diploma in Sports Nutrition.

But some have very useful hints and "how tos". I pick four of these a week to share with you. I also add my insights, generally to explain the "why" so that you have more motivation to try.
These four articles stood out to me this week:

1. Martial arts and seniors
2. The best herbs and spices for your health
3. How to get control of your diabetes
4. A basic stretch which quickly helps almost everyone.​

You've heard a lot about superfoods. Often it is an exotic list of foods that you might try once, but are unlikely to add to your regular diet e.g. ginseng, pomegranate, quinoa. 

Here is a list of "everyday" common foods that contain some superfood qualities that are great for your body. These are among the healthiest foods that you'll see on your everyday supermarket shelves. There is no doubt that these foods all either contain important and hard-to-find nutrients OR have high levels of what’s called nutrient density. Nutrient density refers to how much nutrition you get in a given number of calories. Foods that have a lot of nutrition in a really small number of calories are considered ‘nutrient-dense’.

Add as many as you can to your weekly diet, and you'll be taking advantage of their unsung benefits for your health.

Just as Mussorgsky wrote his "Pictures from an Exhibition" suite after attending an art exhibition, I've created a more prosaic piece of content below which are examples of the questions I experienced from my final examination for a Professional Diploma in Sports and Exercise Nutrition. You'll see from the questions how this knowledge fits into my ambition to help people lower their body age and live longer actively and independently.  

For those who are curious, the correct selections are: 1 - (a), 2 - 91.6-160.4g / day, 3 - (c), 4 - 2079kcal / day, 5 - False, 6 - True, 7 - False, 8 - (a), 9 - Energy availability, Menstrual function, Bone strength, 10 - (b), 11 - Soy, 12 - All factors, 13 - All factors, 14 - False, 15 (d).

Any questions? Message me.

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