May You Be Forever Young

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Googling is good for geriatrics.

A team of US researchers has found that searching the internet stimulates brain activity in the elderly and middle-aged and may help keep their minds sharp.

And:

The UCLA scientists found that searching the web triggers key centres in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning and may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerised technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults,” said Dr Gary Small, the principal investigator of the study.

“Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function,” said Small, a professor at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour.

So does it matter what you Google for? Does looking for the latest in longevity research differ from searching for celeb gossip or political pap?

You’d hope so.

Anyway, keep Googling.

The mental stuff is crucial to longevity. We are dominated by our thoughts. What you hold in your mind - illness, wellness, thinness, fatness, decay, repair - affects how you feel and how you act.

I’m a big fan of The Secret and Bob Proctor. I think they both have a lot to offer.

If you are into this part of being young forever - the mind part - then you might like to check out Bob Proctor’s new program. Best of all, you can try it for free.

I had an aikido instructor who used to always say to us, “Feed your mind.” That’s what this is all about.

Check it out.

Prevention.com gives us a quicky article outlining 14 Surprising Signs You’ll Live Longer Than You Think. Their list:

1. Your Mom Had You Young
2. You’re a Tea Lover
3. You’d Rather Walk
4. You Skip Soda (Even Diet)
5. You Have Strong Legs
6. You Eat Purple Food
7. You Were a Healthy-Weight Teen
8. You Don’t Like Burgers
9. You’ve Been a College Freshman
10. You Really Like Your Friends…
11. …and They’re Healthy
12. You Embrace New Challenges
13. You Don’t Have a Housekeeper
14. You’re a Flourisher

Some of these aren’t so surprising, but still a decent list.

Slate has a look at why vegans can’t decide whether they’re allowed to eat honey. It is, as they say, an old debate.

A fierce doctrinal debate over its status has raged for decades; it turns up on almost every community FAQ and remains so ubiquitous and unresolved that radio host Rachel Maddow proposed to ask celebrity vegan Dennis Kucinich about it during last year’s CNN/YouTube presidential debate. Does honey qualify as a forbidden animal product since it’s made by bees? Or is it OK since the bees don’t seem too put out by making it?

I fall into the it’s OK camp.

What was perhaps more interesting is coming across the term “flexitarian”.

Five years ago, the American Dialect Society honored the word flexitarian for its utility in describing a growing demographic—the “vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.” Now there’s evidence that going flexi is good for the environment and good for your health.

BTW, one can ignore the “dangers of a vegetarian diet” stuff toward the bottom of the article. Sheesh.

CNN brings us the story of Angela Stokes, who half her body weight by embracing a raw food diet.

Two summers after she reached her heaviest weight, Stokes was working at a greenhouse in Iceland, when a friend lent her a copy of a book about the health benefits of eating raw foods. Stokes, who had never been interested in diets, says she was completely “absorbed” by the approach.

She started eating raw the very next day.

“Everything in my life completely shifted. It was like a light bulb moment to be like … ‘this is what I was waiting for to reclaim my health,’ ” said Stokes.

Somewhat obvious, but still inspiring, is how it turned all aspects of her life around.

OK, this is just scary. The Sun Herald gives us Who We Are: The Land of Big Buyers, which outlines the top 100 purchases by Australians (that is, the products that make the most money in Aussie supermarkets), presented in story form. Look at the food choices (along with the other choices, like spraying weekly with bug spray).

For lunch Julie makes herself a can of Campbell’s. Jessica has an Uncle Toby’s muesli bar and a couple of squares of Cadbury’s. When he gets some from school Ben has a packet of Smith’s and a glass of Milo. When she gets home from work, Jessica has two Tim Tams and a can of Diet Coke. Julie’s afternoon tea is Arnott’s Shapes.

And:

For dinner, Julie makes a sauce with Leggo’s tomato paste, McCain frozen peas and John West tuna, to put over San Remo rigatoni. Michael drinks a can of VB, Julie has a glass of Jacob’s Creek chardonnay. For dessert they eat Goulburn Valley tinned fruit with Peter’s icecream.

Fresh food? Whole foods? Apparently, this fictional family says “pass”.

Photo by he who shall

Food Matters, an upcoming Australian documentary, looks like it’s going to be great. Here’s their blurb:

With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what’s wrong with our malnourished bodies, it’s no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide ‘Sickness Industry’ and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for curing disease naturally.

Here’s the trailer:

The web site has good info on it as well. Check it out.

As one who is dubious about governments’ ability to deliver useful outcomes, it was interesting to read Jake Halpern’s Slate article Should the government pay you to lose weight?. A somewhat portly mayor in the Italian Alps decided to pay constituents to loose weight and keep it off:

Buonanno made an official proclamation in which he promised to pay his fellow townspeople cash to slim down. Townsmen would receive 50 euros (about $74) if they lost 9 pounds in a month; townswomen would get that same amount for shedding 7 pounds. What’s more, if participants managed to keep the weight off for five solid months, they each stood to gain an additional 200 euros ($295).

Apparently what looks like a stunt may actually work:

Could the answer to this problem really be paying people to eat less and exercise more? According to Dr. Eric Finkelstein, author of the forthcoming book The Fattening of America, the answer is most definitely yes. This fall, Finkelstein published a study involving 207 overweight or obese people who wanted to lose weight. They were randomly broken into three groups. One group was offered $14 for every 1 percent reduction in body weight over the course of three months; another group was offered just $7; and a control group nothing at all.

On average, members of the $14 group lost 5 pounds, members of the $7 group lost 3 pounds, and members of the control group lost just 2. Finkelstein says that the most persuasive data concerned the participants who shed 5 percent of their body weight, which is generally considered to be the threshold for real health benefits. The members of the $14 group were four times more likely to hit this marker than the control group. The beauty of this, insists Finkelstein, is that it is so cost-effective for insurers or employers. “If people aren’t losing weight and hitting their targets, then you’re not paying,” he says. “You are only paying for success.”

Apparently money talks to the stomach as well.

For those who measure their food, RoyalVKB has these nifty-looking Balance Bowls. Simply put, they tip when filled on one side with a specified weight of food (100 gm, 250 gm). They look handy, especially for on the road.

Look at this fatuous magazine article from Men’s Health called 50 Ways to Beat the Reaper. Someone phoned one in, apparently. The tips range from the somewhat obvious to the downright silly.

20. If You’re Attacked, Hit the Shark in Its Eyes or Gills

24. Vacuum for 30 Minutes

35. Don’t Get Blown to Bits

44. Fall on Your Butt

You get the idea. A real eye-roller if you’re serious about longevity.

Via Digg. Photo: Yuni88.