healthy aging Archives - Wild Blueberries

Feel & Look Younger This Year

Resolve to Step Up Your Anti-aging Efforts in 2013

If 2013 is your year to look better, feel younger, and be healthier, overhauling your diet might be in order. A healthy diet is the closest thing we have to a ticket to longevity – not to mention a better life right now. We simply are what we eat, and today’s scientific research supports that our diet holds sway over our ability to prevent age-related issues, including illness, disease, and overall wellness.

Is health and longevity on your plate this year? It should be. Now is the perfect time to reset the clock on your health. Resolve to make your diet work for you, not against you, in the coming year.

Is Your Diet Aging You?

It could be. The health of your brain, the vitality of your skin, and your chances of experiencing chronic illness are directly influenced by what you put on your plate. When your intake of sugars, fats, and processed foods begins to overtake your intake fruits and vegetables, it means your diet has deteriorated. As a result, you may be putting yourself at risk for what you most want to avoid as you age.

Your Diet Affects Your Brain

Without a healthy brain, let’s face it, the rest just doesn’t matter. But having a diet of prevention now can help keep your brain healthy and nimble later. Eating for brain health is part of a fundamental strategy to help reverse the aging process. Here’s why: a diet rich in anthocyanin-rich foods has been shown to reverse memory loss and slow cognitive decline. In fact, new research into cognitive health such as the Nurse’s Study shows that eating anthocyanin-rich foods can affect intellectual performance, memory, and brain performance related to aging. And, dietary antioxidants have been shown to protect against inflammation, and inflammation is thought to be a leading factor in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Your Diet Affects Your Skin

What we show the world on the outside reflects our inside – that couldn’t be truer when it comes to our skin. Our cells are engaged in a battle against free radicals everyday. Oxidative stress is associated with cancer, heart disease and other diseases of aging. It’s also evident on our outermost layers of cells – free radical damage is the reason the sun and our environment leads to wrinkles and a dull complexion. High antioxidant foods help us in the fight against free radicals and act as anti-aging agents. Dietary antioxidants such as anthocyanins, flavonoids found in the skin pigments of some foods like the deeply-colored wild blueberry, have the ability to neutralize free radicals and help prevent cell damage, and that includes our aging epidermis, an external hallmark of our maturity.

Your Diet Affects Your Risk of Chronic Illness

Can we avoid the chronic illness that plagues us as we age? Some nutrition experts believe we can, and scientists continue to make efforts to isolate the compounds that act on our bodies to prevent aging and disease. What we already know, however, is that natural compounds found in fruits and vegetables can help us prevent chronic illness and promote healthy aging. Aging is often characterized by diseases that are the result of low grade chronic inflammation that occurs inside the body and causes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and even arthritis. Eating antioxidant-rich foods daily has been shown to minimize oxidative strain inside the body, which is connected to chronic illnesses and aging.

Resolve to Age Better in 2013

Here are three simple steps you can take to make 2013 your best year yet in health and anti-aging efforts.

1. Get Your 5 Cups

Reaching (or even closing in on) your recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables will get you closer to your goal of healthy aging. This year, resolve to start eating a diet that combats age-related health risks by eating at a variety of colorful fruits and veggies and filling half your plate with them at every meal. According to the USDA dietary guidelines, that’s 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables, on average, for a total of 5 cups every day. By getting your recommended cups per day, you’ll also get the added benefit of edging out less-than-healthy foods that are aging you too quickly. (That’s two resolutions for the price on one!)

2. Load Up on Berries

Look to berries if you are aiming to make the most of your anti-aging efforts. Why berries? Berries are notorious for their powerful antioxidant benefits thanks to phytonutrients, which aid the process of neutralizing free radicals and are found in high concentrations in berries’ colorful skin. Berries have also been shown to have “synergy” with other foods and to help ameliorate the adverse effects of a meal that occurs with absorption. Wild blueberries in particular top the list of high-phyto berries. (They are also high in fiber and contribute to glycemic control.) If slowing the aging process is your resolution, “bathe your meal in berries” says superfood guru Steven Pratt – whether it’s breakfast, salads, entrees or desserts – you’ll be arming yourself against inflammation and the diseases of aging.

3. Be Antioxidant Savvy

In the quest to age well, make sure you know what foods provide the most powerful source of antioxidants. Deep pigments and colorful skin is often nature’s tip-off that a food has beneficial compounds. By knowing the amount of antioxidants in certain foods, you can get the biggest antioxidant bang from your dietary buck.

You can determine the antioxidant capacity of different fruits and vegetables by knowing their ORAC score. Find a list on the United States Department of Agriculture or by checking OracValues.com, and use your knowledge to start buying foods that promote disease prevention. Shop the produce section or the freezer section for fruits and vegetables – that’s where you’ll find the healthiest foods. And those are the ones you’ll want on your plate every day. Then, even while the calendar keeps moving forward, you’ll know you’re making efforts to turn back the clock.

Healthy Aging Research

Scientists around the world are studying the ways in which natural compounds found in the foods we eat can help combat disease and promote health aging. For an in-depth look at hundreds of health-related blueberry studies, visit the Wild Blueberry Association Research Library™.

I Ate Pizza for Breakfast

5 Nutritional Travesties That Aren’t So Bad

Pizza at the sprints by Richard Jones, on Flickr

Photo by Richard Jones

The thought pops into your head before you even stop chewing – this is a nutritional travesty. We know eating healthy food and loading up on colorful fruits and veggies is the path to feeling good and preventing disease, but navigating this nutritional war zone without tripping a mine occasionally isn’t realistic. Before you succumb to poor eating habits and start thinking of yourself a hopeless nutritional wreck, consider that some guilt may be unnecessary.

Not every indulgence has to be bad. If you’ve had a bad food day, letting go of the guilt may be warranted. Here are five healthy sins for which you can be forgiven.

1. I ate pizza for breakfast.

It happens. After an evening enjoying a pie, there’s usually some left over, which means in the morning you’re faced with that odd piece. It’s cold, it’s covered in congealed cheese, and it’s delicious. But pizza for breakfast doesn’t necessarily destroy your good health habits.

First, if you made it yourself you’re better off. You’ll be more in control of the salt and fat content. Second, tomatoes are high in nutrition. Best if made with fresh tomatoes, sauce has powerful lycopene which is known primarily for its cancer defense. Finally, filling up on non-traditional items for breakfast isn’t all bad. While calling Dominoes at 9 AM isn’t recommended, a single slice can provide protein and vegetables and the energy to get you to lunch—in fact, it’s better for you than many common breakfast options like giant muffins, “breakfast” pastries, or greasy drive-thru breakfast favorites that send you into a slump by mid-morning.

2. I had dessert.

It may be that you are celebrating. After all, April 28th is National Blueberry Pie Day. Is it a national holiday? You bet. Should it be? Who knows? Regardless, you don’t have to feel guilt for being pie-triotic. Pie can be a nutritional boon. Blueberries, particularly wild, are high in nutritional and antioxidant content, and even in a crust it counts as a serving. Jack Kerouac journeyed across the country and relied on diner pie for meals—it was cheap, delicious and provided the perfect compact nutrient delivery system. Try this nutritionally friendly Wild Blueberry Pie and hit the road.

If it was chocolate you indulged in, you can also be forgiven, especially if it was dark chocolate. While there is no official cutoff that defines “dark”, European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids, and cocoa percentages can go as high as 86% and even 99% depending on your tolerance. The good news is that it contains healthy flavonoids – just like those found in fruits and vegetables. Small portions of dark chocolate are credited with improved blood vessel flow and improved blood pressure. Moderation, of course, is the key to gaining the advantages and not suffering from the extra calories or replacing other healthy foods.

If neither pie nor chocolate is the source of your dessert guilt, you may be the victim of refined sugar, processed additives, and consequential blood sugar spikes. Take heart. Whole Food Resources offers some “remedies” for overindulgence in everything from sugar to fat to alcohol. They recommend reversing the negative effects of a sweet-fest by drinking ginger tea with soy sauce, or eating cured pickles.

3. I ate (guacamole, potatoes, eggs, wine).

Some foods that are considered bad for us are really food that is getting a bad rap. If these foods were part of a diet indulgence, you can start feeling better about yourself immediately upon understanding their potent nutritional benefits—or, you can start integrating them into your diet and leaving the guilt at the kitchen door.

Avocados. Guacamole lovers already know that while avocados are considered to be high in fat, they should be lauded as a strong dietary complement. They actually contain monsaturated fat that is good for your heart and compounds that could prevent cancer. This nut in veggie clothing is high in antioxidants, and it may help the body absorb the nutrients from other foods (like the lycopene in the tomato salsa that may have accompanied them.) Make guacamole yourself to get all the benefits and leave the additives behind.

Eggs. We go to a lot of trouble to avoid eggs and their evil yellow centers in an effort to lower cholesterol. In fact, eggs, yolks included, are a low-calorie, nutritionally-dense food that contains high quality protein, antioxidants and vital nutrients such as folate, B12 and choline. Those strictly watching cholesterol are smart to eliminate yolks, but most of us could do a lot worse than indulging in eggs on occasion, either as part of an omelet or a quiche or in a dish all on their own.

Potatoes. Perceived as a dietary killjoy, potatoes are actually a wonderful round package of nutrients – especially with the skin on, which contains 60 different types of phytochemicals and vitamins. Potatoes are also known to be high in potassium. They get no points for adding color to your plate, so they are often dismissed when it comes to nutrition, but it’s the frying and the butter that really does the damage. Russets in particular have huge nutritional benefits and high antioxidant content says this dailymail.com article on surprise superfoods. Even the calories are moderate, provided you hold the dollop of sour cream.

Red wine. It’s no secret that red wine has received the super-nutrient nod, thanks to reports that say moderate coiffing can protect against heart disease. Drinking up to two glasses of red wine a day has also been thought to improve brain power. Resveratrol, its powerful ingredient, has been discovered to be a dietary hero and that’s a much relied-upon fact in circulation any given night at a wine bar or dinner party. Increased consumption, however, does not mean increased benefit. Read more about Where We are with Red Wine Research.

4. I ate fast food.

It could be the most unforgivable food sin. Fast in synonymous with high calorie, high fat, and sky-high salt content. In fact, the typical fast food meal supplies about 1,150 calories – an entire day’s worth of calories for someone watching their intake, with most of the calories coming from fat. Even if you skip the burger, fast food chicken and fish is breaded and fried, and most fast-food meals lack complex carbohydrates and fiber. It can be a tough nutritional truth to swallow, especially after the dust settles and the eating is done.

But you can be redeemed from a fast food slip up.

According to nutritional experts, the damage to your health can be undone. Over the long run, we can reverse heart disease risk by following either a low-fat vegetarian regimen or a Mediterranean diet that’s rich in healthy fats, whole grains, and vegetables. According to Prevention.com, “As long as it took for you to get to an unhealthy state, that’s about how long it takes to become disease free.” In fact, reversing nutritional damage, particularly that which comes with age, has tremendous interest to researchers.

The late Dr. James Joseph, co-author of The Color Code, has reported that a diet of blueberries may improve motor skills and reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging such as Alzheimer’s. Dr. Barbara Shukitt-Hale, a USDA Staff Scientist in the Laboratory of Neuroscience, USDA-ARS, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, has done research that has had a significant impact on the world of nutrition and anti-aging by studying the effects of a diet supplemented with berries and finding that they could reverse functional age-related deficits in motor and cognitive behavior. It may be we can begin turning back the clock on poor health as soon as we come out of our fast food coma.

5. I just plain ate a lot – all day.

We all have days where we start eating, and we keep eating, regardless of the time of day, the nutritional content or the caloric intake. Must we go to the back of the nutritional line and start from scratch to meet our goals for good health and disease prevention? Or, can we recover from a high intake day?

We can.

If it is the extra weight from a day of indulgence that concerns you most, consider this: recent studies indicate that for some of us, the more we eat, the more we burn by unconsciously moving incrementally more, fidgeting, or taking the stairs and bustling about more doing everyday activities. Our bodies simply respond to the added caloric intake naturally.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone. Some of us, alas, do not have this calorie-balancing metabolism. If you are one of these people, there are other reasons not to worry. Taking in a lot of calories can mean more energy for workouts, and it can often lead us to feel less hungry the following day to compensate. And, as many “cheat” diet enthusiasts will tell you, if a day or two of nutrition and diet denial keeps you on track in the long term, that’s the most important thing.

If it isn’t caloric value but nutrition you’ve eschewed, there are still reasons not to despair. Your health is a result of what you do over time, and our bodies respond immediately to resuming good health and nutritional habits. Eating poorly or overeating one day a week gives you a solid 86% rate on good eating habits. And, as we mentioned above, healthy food is such a powerful nutritional tool that it can reverse health woes associated with aging and poor health. So return to your colorful nutritional plates full of fruits and veggies with a clear conscience. You’ll be back in good health in the time it takes you to ask for seconds.

How Bad Are Your Health Vices? Check yourself at Prevention.com.

Pawl-ee-FEE-nol: Today’s Nutritional Buzzword?

Just twenty years ago we would have been hard pressed to find information about the little substance called the polyphenol, even in the most arcane scientific literature. Now, thanks to chemical research and nutritional science, polyphenols are turning up everywhere. What accounts for polyphenols going mainstream? Many things. But one interesting thing is your skin.

Sunscreen for Your Insides

“We know that a third of skin-related nutrition relates to polyphenols,” Superfood doc Steven Pratt told the Wild Blueberry Health News last fall. “If you want to have healthy skin, you better eat blueberries. They play a bigger role in keeping skin wrinkle-free than any other food group.”

Dr. Pratt was referring to research that indicates that polyphenols play a major role in keeping the skin healthy. While piling on the sunscreen has been de rigueur since people began to understand the dangers of sun exposure, both for good health and for wrinkle prevention, Dr. Pratt suggests putting sunscreen on from inside out, with polyphenols. Polyphenols, found in foods like berries, appear to inhibit the production of inflammatory mediators, protecting the skin from wrinkles and from the signs of aging.

What’s the connection? Chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases. In studies of rats fed polyphenols-rich blueberries, the concentration of several substances in the brain that can trigger an inflammatory response was significantly reduced. Polyphenols appeared to inhibit the production of these inflammatory mediators. That’s important for many health-related reasons, including maintaining healthy, youthful skin. You can read the research here.

Put Polyphenols in Your Life

In addition to serving as an internal sunscreen, polyphenols, because of their antioxidant properties, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. In fact, polyphenols as regulators of carbon cycling have even been of interest to researchers for how they might affect global warming.

Berries are one of the major players in the role of polyphenols, hence Dr. Pratt’s reference to blueberries as a great source. High levels of polyphenols can generally be found in fruit skins, which is why the deep blue skin of blueberries, and the high skin-to-pulp ratio of wild blueberries in particular, puts this fruit at the top of the list. Other sources of polyphenols include tea, grapes, chocolate, and many fruits and vegetables.

The idea that we can protect our skin from within as well as from without should be considered groundbreaking for a society preoccupied with youth (Hands, please!). Health always works from the inside out, after all. Now that summer’s around the corner, you can pack in the polyphenols when you think of slapping on the sunscreen, knowing you are doing something truly beneficial for your skin.

Is Death a Disease to Be Cured? Anti-Aging Uncovered: Part I

Recently, we read a fun post from the Idaho Statesmen that takes a global look at the Top Antiaging Foods. The “You” docs, the force behind www.RealAge.com, also known as Oprah pals Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, the authors of You: On a Diet, are responsible for the list. To make the case for anti-aging and preventing age-related diseases, the Docs take one cautionary step away from anti-aging marketing and one forthright step toward foods that those who live long healthy lives actually eat. From Nova Scotia’s Blueberry Grunt to the wine of France, they celebrate proven healthy eating around the world.

The “You” Docs are right to consider our eating habits from a global as well as a historical perspective. As our lifestyle becomes more and more modern, our food choices evolve and contract too, and tunnel vision sets in. Because foods like berries, nuts, fish, veggies actually work in opposition to the modern lifestyle, our need for these “real” foods has increased, and our consumption of them has dropped.

When it comes to the impact of nutrition on longevity, the claims seem almost magical. That nature is full of powerfully nutritious foods that conspire to offer a fountain of youth seems too good to be true. But what’s even more magical is the idea that some foods and how we eat them can not just prevent aging but reverse the aging process. All the prattle about anti-aging on everything from a bottle of face cream to a cereal bar begs the question: what is anti-aging? Is death itself a disease that can be cured?

An Amazing Mechanism

Dr. Pratt, Superfoods guru and author of Superfoods Rx – 14 Foods That Will Change Your Life credits longevity to foods like blueberries, avocados, yogurt, tomatoes and wild salmon. He gave an interview to Wild Blueberry Health News this past fall.

“Your body is an amazing repair mechanism given half a chance,” Pratt said, opening the door to the idea that foods can not only slow the aging process but reverse it. “These foods they are very important to us. They lower inflammatory markers. They cause basal dilation, they lower blood pressure.” The very things responsible for the diseases of aging.

You’ve heard it before. People say, understandably, that they don’t want to live “too” long because they would be bed-ridden and feeble-minded. But the very idea of longevity is that we don’t want to just live longer, we want to be healthy, too. Pratt said he has talked to patients for decades that are afraid to get old. “They are afraid to get old because they’re afraid they’ll be blind, deaf, in a wheelchair…all of these things that put people in a nursing home. And berries [and other foods on his list, too] offer a tasty way to avoid all that.”

Wow. Really? Avoid all that?

“It’s really that simple.”

Enter anti-aging – of the body’s mechanism, not its chronology – which includes all aspects of the body: the brain, the heart, the eyes – those things that pop up first on the list of what’s important to preserve during our more mature years. They all go together, says Dr. Pratt. “Rarely do you see a brain that’s top notch and poor eyesight. It’s good for the eyes, it’s good for the brain and if it’s good for the brain it’s good for the heart,” he said.

The Science of Anti-aging

In fact, it’s really not magic, it’s science. One of the most important aspects of “anti-aging” that these foods can deliver is anti-inflammation.

Some foods (like berries) lower inflammatory markers, as Pratt said. They cause basal dilation and lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. They work on the capillary level to keep microcirculation working well, and that affects the heart, the brain and eyes and prevents the diseases of aging that attacks them.

Chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases. For example, when rats with neuronal lesions were fed a blueberry-supplemented diet, not only did they perform better in cognitive tests, the concentration of several substances in the brain that can trigger an inflammatory response was significantly reduced. The polyphenols in blueberries appear to inhibit the production of these inflammatory mediators. Dr. James Joseph, Ph. D., from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging has been studying the anti-inflammatory potential of the polyphenols in blueberries, his research is published in Nutritional Neuroscience.

Preventing the disease of aging is an important and nascent issue in the field of nutrition, and research into its implications is exploding. In future posts, we’ll explore more of the science behind longevity, otherwise known as healthy aging, anti-aging, and age-related disease prevention. Behind each term may lurk the key to making our golden years truly worth living.

Berry Accessible – All Winter Long

We commend Real Age for touting alternate ways to get the cancer-fighting, anti-aging benefits of berries during the long cold winter. They suggest freeze-dried as an alternative to fresh. But don’t forget frozen. Frozen can have advantages over freeze-dried (quick freezing helps them to retain their shape) and also retain all the nutritional benefits!