How to live longer and enjoy yourself more

Only 19 more days until we get some blessed relief from truly deep, bipartisan, political dudgeon, the worst in many years. Even friends and family are at each other’s throat. But politicians come and go, and the truth is that America is strong enough to survive a watch with either party at the helm. So let’s talk about something that really matters – your health.

All the experts agree – there are two major knobs you can turn to improve your health, sense of wellbeing, and longevity: diet and exercise. Let’s look at physical activity first.

While some of us are already physically active from choice (exercise, competition) or necessity (work), many are not. The New York Times reports a fascinating study of Finnish identical twins who differed significantly, in later life, in exercise activity. Genetics, early life and upbringing were all similar. It was only in later life that one twin exercised and the other did not.

“It turned out that these genetically identical twins looked surprisingly different beneath the skin and skull. The sedentary twins had lower endurance capacities, higher body fat percentages, and signs of insulin resistance, signaling the onset of metabolic problems. The twins’ brains also were unalike. The active twins had significantly more grey matter than the sedentary twins, especially in areas of the brain involved in motor control and coordination.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offer the following benefits of a non-sedentary lifestyle:

• ·         Control weight
• ·         Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease
• ·         Reduce risk for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome
• ·         Reduce risk of some cancers
• ·         Strengthen bones and muscles
• ·         Improve mental health and mood
• ·         Improve ability to do daily activities and prevent falls
• ·         Increase chances of living longer

Further, the amount of exercise to achieve these benefits is not extreme. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week (less than 25 minutes per day), and some muscle strengthening exercise at least twice per week.

Moderate exercise may include any of the following:

• ·         Walking briskly (3 miles per hour or faster, but not race-walking)
• ·         Water aerobics
• ·         Bicycling slower than 10 miles per hour
• ·         Tennis (doubles)
• ·         Ballroom dancing
• ·         General gardening

But a very easy way to incorporate more activity into your life is to embrace a more physical daily routine.

• ·         Park as far from the mall as possible and walk; eschew the closest parking space
• ·         Walk to your corner store for sundries
• ·         Shovel your driveway of moderate snowfalls
• ·         Replace your lawnmower with a non-driven walk-behind
• ·         Take the stairs whenever possible

All of this counts toward your 150 minute weekly goal.

The other major knob within your control is diet. Here are the key recommendations from the American Heart Association. Your diet should emphasize:

• ·         a variety of fruits and vegetables,
• ·         whole grains,
• ·         low-fat dairy products,
• ·         skinless poultry and fish
• ·         nuts and legumes
• ·         non-tropical vegetable oils

Ensuring that you are getting adequate dietary fiber is extremely important. One very easy rule of thumb comes from Harvard Health. When purchasing food items, quickly check the nutrition label. Locate two numbers: total carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Select the food only if dietary fiber is at least 10% of total carbohydrates. They offer this simple method: Divide the grams of carbohydrates by 10. If the grams of fiber is at least as large as the answer, the food meets the 10% standard.

Here are some examples of food you would or would not purchase based on this approach:

• ·         Whole Wheat Spaghetti – Yes
• ·         Standard (white) pasta – No

• ·         Fiber One Chewy Bars – Yes
• ·         Typical granola bar – No

• ·         Shredded wheat cereal – Yes
• ·         Any sugary cereal – No

• ·         Smartfood popcorn – Yes
• ·         Most potato chips – No

Further, you can look up the nutrition information of home-prepared foods using the web. Here is another choice that might surprise you:

• ·         Baked potato with skin on (dressed like a salad with olive oil and vinegar) - Yes
• ·         Mashed potatoes prepared with milk and butter - No

In all the foregoing is the implicit message that we must eat less meat. The healthiest peoples of the world eat meat occasionally as a treat, not a daily staple.

In conclusion, a crash diet isn’t going to help you. An unused gym membership is worthless. To be effective, you must mold for yourself a healthy lifestyle.

Exercise takes time. That is your investment, but the payoff is huge. If woven into your daily routine, it is not so difficult nor noticeable.

Here is to you and a long, healthy life. After all, we will need to last at least one more election cycle in hopes of getting better choices. 

How to lose weight and live a longer, healthier life

The answer is so simple that it’s hardly believable: beans.

And the question is – how to lose weight and live a longer, healthier life.

In a recent TED Talk and Wall Street Journal article, explorer and educator Dan Buettner describes what he calls “blue zones,” areas with unusual concentrations of centenarians. Buettner identified and studied seven such regions having an unusually high number of persons 100 years or older: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and Loma Linda, California.

Working with demographers and physicians, Buettner uncovered the common threads that these healthy oldsters share. Here is one of his major findings: “Their diet consists mainly of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and other carbohydrates. They eat meat but only small amounts, about five times a month, usually on celebratory occasions. The cornerstone of every longevity diet in the world was the humble bean.”

The theory is that the complex carbohydrates and high fiber afforded by this diet in general, and beans in particular, are kind to our microbiota, the teeming trillions of bacteria in our guts. They, in turn, are kind to us, helping us to digest and glean energy from our food. Further benefits of healthy gut flora include increased metabolic function, prevention of allergies, and boosting the immune system. These little guys are busy, indeed.

A high fiber diet, in addition to longevity, is also correlated with weight loss. In a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers performed a dietary study of 240 adults in Worcester, MA. Their goal was to compare the efficacy of a simple, high fiber diet to the more complex, multicomponent American Heart Association (AHA) diet.

What they found was that by following one simple rule, that is, to consume a diet high in fiber, those subjects lost nearly as much weight as the ones on the much more complex AHA diet.

The value of this may not be immediately obvious. But take a look at just a small excerpt from the thousands of words describing the AHA diet:

“Consume a variety of fruits and vegetables; choose 5 or more servings per day. Limit intake of foods with high content of cholesterol-raising fatty acids. Match intake of total energy (calories) to overall energy needs. Limit salt (sodium chloride) intake.”

This, compared to only one rule: eat a high fiber diet. Those following this simple diet gained nearly all the benefit of those following the AHA diet. (Remember, this was for weight loss).

But how to choose a high-fiber diet when our supermarkets are full of sub-optimal stuff?

Harvard Health has the answer. In a 2013 study published in Public Health Nutrition, Harvard Health researchers developed a simple method to allow shoppers to choose healthy, whole-grain, high fiber products. They call it the 10-in-1 rule.

The simplicity is alluring. When shopping for bread, breakfast bars, pasta, chips, or any such related carbohydrates, pick the ones with the lowest “total carbohydrates to dietary fiber” ratio, no more than ten to one. Compare the nutrition labels on various offerings, and choose those where dietary fiber is at least 10% (more is better) of total carbohydrates.

Refer to the nearby depiction of a nutrition label. Note that total carbohydrates per serving is 28 grams, while dietary fiber is 9 grams. The dietary fiber is far more than 10% of the total carbohydrates (2.8g). This is indeed a high fiber choice.

What you will find is that that simple guideline will automatically steer you away from foods which are high in simple carbohydrates, sugars, and trans fats. A simpler shopping guide could not be found.

But you may find that some old favorites do not measure up. You may need to switch to whole-wheat pasta to get healthy spaghetti. Or that the white flour tortillas at the local grocer aren’t nearly as healthy as the whole-wheat variety from another supermarket. Or that you may need to change your brand of bread, because a much healthier option has been found. All this based on a simple ratio, no calculator required.

A rather whirlwind tour, but remember these points:

·         A high fiber diet (especially one rich in beans) is correlated with longevity

·         A high fiber diet is a simple way to lose weight

·         A high fiber diet is simple to shop for using the 10-in-1 rule

In the end, you must eat the foods that please you. But perhaps this will give you pause, and readiness, to try other options. Your microbiota will thank you. And their applause is thunderous.