Nutrition and lifestyle in healthy aging

Today, researchers are struggling to find a compound or an “elixir” for long life, while common people are taking dietary supplements with the intent to preserve mental, physical, and emotional health into old age. Most dietary supplement programs include combinations of vitamins, antioxidants, and other constituents, some of which have been shown to have significant health benefits in controlled clinical studies. Specific nutrients provide all the necessary building blocks to support telomere** health and extend lifespan.

This is the case of folate [56,57], vitamins (B, D, E, C)[58] zinc [59] and polyphenol compounds such as resveratrol [60], grape seed extract and curcumin [61]. 

Several foods -such as tuna, salmon, herring, mackerel,halibut, anchovies, cat-fish, grouper, flounder, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, kiwi, black raspberries, green tea, broccoli, sprouts, red grapes, tomatoes, olive fruit- are a good source of antioxidants. These, combined with a Mediterranean type of diet containing fruits, vegetable sand whole grains would help protect our chromosome ends [62-70]. 

Footnotes correspond to article bibliography:  https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/paperchase-aging/pdf/mW9rhe3mWMZWAs46n.pdf

**Telomeres are long sequences of nucleotides at the end of our chromosomes, forming with specific proteins complex, an “end caps” which preserve genome stability and lead a cell to correctly divide.

I eat orange peel

I eat an orange every day.  About every third orange, I slice the peel, put it in a small amount of water and zap it in the microwave, drain, and do it again and drain.  Then I soak it in sugar water for a day.  Sometimes I save that water for my tea. I drain the water and sprinkle the peel with sugar and keep it in the frig in a closed container, where I munch a few slices a day for something tangy and sweet (much less sugar than a piece of candy). I used to let the slices dry out and then sugar them, but it didn’t really change the taste.  If I were serving them at a party as sugared orange peels, I’d probably do it the right way.  I don’t think I’ve discovered all the health benefits that this web page reports (lower cholesterol, anti-inflammatory, weight loss), but at least I haven’t had a cold in 18 months, which is pretty unusual for me.  Or it’s a fluke.  Either way,I’ve become rather fond of the peels.  I sometimes chop them (after I’ve prepared them) in small pieces and add to fruit salads.

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/fruit-peel.html

Always read instructions for cleaning the peel.

Cross posted at Collecting my thoughts.

A word from Whole Foods

Janeen alerted me to this--Whole Foods website has pod cast/ MP3 audio on a healthy body for you. The February, part 1, was on the role of inflammation, antioxidants, free radicals, etc., "Straight to your Heart."

Take-aways:

Nourish your heart with healthy eating
Control inflammation--good fats, antioxidants
Reduce stress, allergies, excess weight

One of these days I'll have to start podding. But it's OK to listen at the computer.

Cross posted at Collecting my Thoughts

Nutritionism

Why are we eating "healthy" and just getting fatter? There's an interesting article in the NYT Magazine called "Unhappy meals" about how we eat, focusing on nutrients instead of real food.

Nutritionism may be the culprit, says the author. There are more government regulations, more nutritional studies, more diets (low fat, low carb, etc.), and there's a huge industry of journalists and authors (including the one who wrote the above article) who do nothing but write articles or publish books about what to eat and how to eat it. One nutrition/exercise/health web site I read recently said we are spending more on obesity per day than on the war in Iraq. I haven't crunched the numbers, but that's scary! Read the article (recommended by Janeen who combats food allergies daily in her family) and see what you think.

There are good ideas and points in this article--many we've heard before, but cherry pick. We are bombarded by anti-western this and that, and eco-friendly tidbits by the same journalists who wrote us into obesity! You need to be selective. In the 1970s women were literally pushed out of the home and kitchen; we've been getting fatter since. Now we're being reeled back. Barefoot and pregnant probably won't fly these days. But do try to eat real food.

If you can find it.

From a longer post at Collecting My Thoughts.

Finally, an expert who agrees with me

A recent issue of JAMA reviewed positively the book What to eat: an aisle by aisle guide. . . by Marion Nestle, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. $30, ISBN 0-86547-7043.

The reviewer thought it was well written and indexed, and I was impressed to read that a nutritionist says what I do. . . "eat less, move more" and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and go easy on junk food (we called this "eating all the colors" in the old days).