Encouraging Health

To keep your knees and hands free of arthritis, here’s what you should have before each meal: a small salad.

Why? Because the vitamin K in leafy greens — think cabbage, spinach, and swiss chard, for starters — could help reduce your risk of joint damage.

Get a Grip on Arthritis
In a study of older adults, those with higher blood levels of vitamin K were significantly less likely to develop the bone spurs and cartilage damage that are common in painful osteoarthritis. Hands seemed to benefit most, but people’s knees got some protection, too. Just one word of caution: If you’re on blood thinners, check with your doctor about appropriate K intake.

A Yummy Greens Scene
You shouldn’t need a vitamin K supplement if you eat your greens — especially dark ones. (Whew. One less supplement to take.)

I love kale. Here’s a recipe i’d like to try soon:

Indian-Spiced Kale and ChickpeasChickpeas make this exotic dish a terrific player in any vegetarian menu.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1 1/2 pounds kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped (see Tip)
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garam masala, (see Ingredient note)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

Directions
1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add kale and cook, tossing with two large spoons, until bright green, about 1 minute. Add broth, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in chickpeas; cover and cook until the chickpeas are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

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It’s lean, it’s laden with fill-you-up protein, and it helps keep your arteries clear. What is it?

It’s the mighty bean. Yep. Beans have it all — including the ability to reduce the amount of artery-clogging fat in your blood.

Lower Lipids
In a study, people who ate a half cup of cooked pinto beans every day for 12 weeks experienced a drop in total and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Which means beans could do great things for your heart health. Researchers theorize it’s the antioxidants in beans — called polyphenols — that may help lower blood lipids.

More Heart Safeguards
One possible caveat: In the recent bean study, HDL (good) cholesterol dropped a bit, too — something not seen in other bean studies. Follow-up research will be needed to see if it’s a fluke or holds true. In the meantime, here are a bunch of other reasons to make beans your best friends:

They help your pants fit better.

Thanks to all the fiber, they help control Blood Pressure.

Getting Rid of the Gas

The fact that beans help thwart colon polyps is all well and good. But how can you prevent the gassy aftereffects that often come with beans?

Here are some tips:

Rinse canned beans before cooking or eating them.

Pour off the soaking water for dry beans and use fresh for cooking.
Increase bean consumption gradually.

Offset the added fiber with plenty of fluids and exercise.

Bean There, Done That

Colon health doesn’t start and stop with eating beans, of course. You should also consider colon cancer screening.

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Want a fun and easy way to power up your brain? Have a chat over coffee, tea, or even warm milk.

The key here is the chat, not your choice of beverage. Even if they’re brief, occasional bouts of social interaction can help sharpen your wits.

Keep Chatting for Better Thinking
Whether you engage in conversation with a friend, a family member, or the guy behind you in the express line, keep talking. In a recent study of young adults, a mere 10 minutes of face-to-face conversation about a social issue was enough to boost working memory and mental processing speeds. Chitchat was as good as a crossword puzzle, in terms of brain benefits. In fact, the more people socialize, the better their brainpower — regardless of age.

Mental Aerobics
Conversation requires us to pay attention, remember what was said, deduce the other person’s meaning, and come up with appropriate responses — some pretty serious mental gymnastics. And when it comes to mental muscle, it’s use it or lose it.

Pick Up a Book, Bulk Up Your Brain

Don’t deny yourself the luxury of curling up with that murder mystery, tragic tale, or sci-fi thriller this weekend. Consider it self-defense class for your brain.

Being a bookworm doesn’t just make you smart. It makes you mentally tough. It builds so much cognitive reserve that bookworms’ brains may be bolstered against bad things like pollution and toxins.

Calling All Reserves
On cognitive tests, book lovers outperform people with lower reading levels. No surprise there. But the big news is that people who read regularly may develop a “cognitive reserve.” What’s that mean? That they’ve got extra brainpower to keep the mind rolling when brain cells are under attack. In a study of factory workers, the brains of the big readers functioned just fine on cognitive tasks, despite on-the-job exposure to toxic substances, like lead.

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Four simple rules could turn your breakfast into a cravings crusher, pound shedder, and mood booster.

It’s all about timing and balance, according to Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes, Not Prozac.

One, Two, Three, Four . . .
Here are DesMaisons’s four simple rules for using breakfast to counterbalance the biochemical mechanisms behind sugar cravings, obesity, and depression.

1. Do it daily. Your goal is to make it a daily, automatic habit. The reward? You can kiss late-day low blood sugar and sugary snack cravings goodbye — permanently.

2. Do it sooner rather than later. For the best results, eat breakfast within an hour or so of waking up — even if you’re not hungry. Morning-time low blood sugar produces a brain chemical designed to mask hunger pangs — but can cause sugar cravings later in the day.

3. Make it complex. We’re talking complex carbohydrates here (whole-grain cereals, steel-cut oats, high-fiber fruits, etc.) The fiber keeps blood sugar on an even keel and helps you feel full longer.

4. Power it with protein. Protein slows digestion, helps prevent spikes and dips in blood sugar, and can even give you a dose of depression-fighting tryptophan. DesMaisons recommends that you get a third of your daily protein at breakfast.

It’s true: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A nutritious, well-balanced morning meal not only sustains your energy levels better than endless cups of coffee, but it also can help:

• Boost weight loss efforts. Research shows that breakfast eaters are more successful at losing weight and maintaining that weight loss compared to breakfast skippers.
• Sharpen your mind. People who consume a high-fiber breakfast stay more alert than those who start their day with a high-fat meal, according to research.
• Protect your cardiovascular system. A study revealed that people who consumed whole-grain cereals rather than refined cereals had a lower risk of heart disease.
• Strengthen your immune system. The right breakfast choices help you start your day with immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

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If you’ve been denying yourself pancakes for health and waist reasons, get out the griddle — they’re back.

Play Fast and Loose with the Batter
“Pancake batters are like cookie mixtures: They aren’t an exact science. You can throw all kinds of stuff into them and they’ll still come out just fine!” says nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of The Food and Mood Cookbook. Here’s how to rehab your favorite flapjack recipe:

1. Cut Down the Calories
· Use half the oil, margarine, shortening, or butter called for in the recipe.
· Use nonfat milk or nonfat condensed milk — or low-fat buttermilk or soymilk — instead of whole milk.
· Use cooking spray to prepare the griddle.
· Keep servings to two 4″ pancakes.

2. Pump Up the Fiber
· Replace some of the white or unbleached flour with whole-wheat pastry flour. (It’s lighter than regular whole-wheat flour.) Start with 3/4 cup white and 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour for every cup of flour called for. Increase the whole-wheat flour every time you cook until you find the proportion you like best.
· Toss in a handful of oatmeal to up the protein and fiber. (You may need to add a little extra milk, too.)
· To make gluten-free pancakes, use buckwheat flour.

3. Skim Off the Cholesterol
· Replace the eggs with egg substitute, or use two whites per yolk.
· For fluffier pancakes, whip the whites separately, and then fold them into the batter.

4. Skinny Down the Sugar
· Replace half the sugar with Splenda.
· Try adding sweet-tasting flavorings: vanilla, nutmeg, and/or cinnamon, and leave out some of the sugar.

5. Rev Up the Antioxidants
· Mix a spoonful of canned pumpkin, grated apple, or whole blueberries into the batter.
· Add some toasted wheat germ or ground flaxseeds, too.

6. Swap Out the Syrup
· Heap on fresh or thawed berries — any kind.
· Top with a tablespoon of all-fruit apricot jam and a sliced banana.
· Spoon on fat-free sour cream, yogurt, or ricotta cheese mixed with mango chunks or mandarin oranges.

If you still crave syrup, drizzle any of the above with a little agave nectar (sold in health-food stores). It tastes as sweet as syrup, but it’s far easier on your blood sugar levels.

Now, Reap the Rewards
Trading pale, wimpy pancakes soaked in butter and syrup for hearty, healthy ones rich in flavor, fruit, fiber, and nutrients will do more than rehab an A.M. favorite and boost your energy for the day.

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Red wine isn’t the only beverage that helps keep your arteries clear.

Here are two other mighty fine choices: cranberry juice and tea.

Both are bursting with heart-protective flavonoids. To get the RealAge-recommended daily dose, you can drink several cups of tea (any kind will do) or two and a half small glasses of cranberry juice a day. Yup, it’s that easy.

All About Your Arteries
Whole fruits and veggies are good flavonoid sources, too. But it’s nice to know that what you drink can help nudge you toward the RealAge goal of 31 milligrams of flavonoids daily. Get enough and you’ll not only help give heart disease the boot but also fend off peripheral artery disease (PAD) — a condition that reduces blood flow to the limbs and vital organs. OJ and tomato juice have lots of flavonoids, too, by the way.

Extra Protection
Stave off artery disease with these additional love-your-heart steps:

Kick butt. Smokers are at particularly high risk.

Lace up your walking shoes. Carve out 30 minutes during your day to pound the pavement.

Love the good fats. That means grabbing nuts (not chips) and olive oil (not butter)

Cram in More Cranberries

Bursting with flavor, dripping with color, and abounding in cancer-fighters — the tiny cranberry has it all.

The bright red of the cranberry is a clue that it is jam-packed with flavonoids, including ones that appear to defend against cancer cell growth. So spread your turkey sandwiches with lots of tasty, fresh cranberry relish. It’s great on fish, in muffins, and as a salad topping, too!

Researchers testing a unique group of flavonoids — anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and flavonol glycosides — found that individually, each one prevented liver and breast cancer cells from multiplying. When the three are combined, as they are in a cranberry, they may be even more effective in squelching cancer cell growth. In the lab, it’s called synergy. In your mouth, it’s called divine.

Enjoy plenty of fresh cranberries this season by making sauces, cobblers, muffins, and breads with them. When they are out of season, stock up on dried cranberries and add them to cereal, salads, and trail mix. And cranberry juice with a splash of sparkling water is a terrific refresher. With every bite or sip, you’ll be doing something positive for your health, and positively delicious.

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The button mushrooms you bought at the store aren’t just a pretty kabob filler. Those beauties may have talent, too.

Now, I absolutely love mushrooms! They are the first vegetable I tried. The earthy, meaty taste still lingers from that first taste, from decades ago. Mushrooms aren’t just delicious, they are multi-taskers like the rest of us. Like the ability to rev up the body’s self-defenses against things like cancer and viral infections.

Tumor Terminators
Western medicine has only recently begun to study the concept, but early animal research suggests fungi may have some pretty serious health-promoting powers. For example, powdered white button mushrooms recently boosted production of natural killer cells in mice. If the same thing happens in humans, that’s great news, because killer cells help defend against tumors and virus-infected cells.

Mention “Mushrooms” and What Comes to Mind? Most likely, their fabulous taste and texture. But there’s more to mushrooms than the pleasure of sitting down to a meaty Portabella sandwich, a mixed-mushroom omelet or a steak topped with sautéed white mushrooms. These oh-so-edible fungi also deserve attention for their unique contributions to a healthful diet.

Often grouped with vegetables, mushrooms provide many of the nutritional attributes of produce, as well as attributes more commonly found in meat, beans or grains. Mushrooms are low in calories, fat-free, cholesterol-free and very low in sodium, yet they provide several nutrients, including riboflavin, niacin and selenium, which are typically found in animal foods or grains. And Mushrooms are one of the few natural sources of vitamin D, which is essential for healthy bones and teeth.

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Getting toned arms and legs sounds like a job for Mr. Nautilus. But Mr. Peach?

Maybe. Seems potassium-rich produce — like peaches — gives your muscles what they need to stay toned, healthy, and able to do their jobs.

It’s a Balance
A diet heavy in proteins and cereal grains can cause blood to become too acidic. When this happens, muscle tissue can waste away. Fruits and vegetables, though, make your body’s pH more alkaline — mostly thanks to their high potassium content. So it makes sense that people in a recent study who loaded up on potassium-rich produce had more lean muscle mass than their produce-shirking peers.

Your Body, Years Ahead
Some other ways to shape up now and stay buff-looking long into your retirement years:
Shape your core. These foundational muscles — hips, tummy, back — are where it all starts.

First, grab an exercise ball. Using an exercise ball for stomach toning gives you stronger muscles than if you did the exercises on the floor. Plus, you get bonus benefits, like better balance. Now, follow these three easy “Ab Curl” steps:

1. Sit on the exercise ball, feet flat on the floor, knees hip-width apart and bent at a 90-degree angle.

2. Place your hands behind your head, elbows pointed out, and slowly roll back until your mid to lower back rests on the ball.

3. Pull your ribs toward your pelvis to raise your upper back 3 to 4 inches off the ball. Hold for a second and then return your shoulders to the ball. Repeat 10 times.

Your core — the 29 muscles surrounding the middle of your body — is responsible for keeping you stable and strong. Core workouts not only give you firm, flat abs but also help you out-drive your golf group, add aces to your tennis game, kick up your carving quotient when you’re skiing or snowboarding, and make you look better in jeans.

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Wake up your taste buds, and protect your pancreas while you’re at it, with some Indian food this weekend. Or try a Thai dish.

Turmeric — the spice that gives curry and other Far Eastern fare its strong, distinctive flavor — may lower your risk of pancreatic cancer. So find that takeout number.

It’s Good to Be Yellow
Curcumin, the yellow stuff in turmeric, may do in tumor cells. When researchers added the substance to cancerous pancreas cells, production practically shut down — thanks to a clampdown on cytokines, chemicals linked to tumor growth and cell survival.

Pancreas-Protective Foods

When you want a healthy, happy pancreas, you’ve got plenty of foods to choose from. Try these, for instance:

Onion and arugula. They’re darn tasty on sandwiches and pack special cancer-clubbing flavonols.

Fish, eggs, and poultry. These are better choices for your pancreas than processed meats.

D-fortified cereals and dairy.

3 Feel-Better Postworkout Foods

What’s the best snack to grab after a major workout? How about a bowl of whole-grain cereal, a bite of Indian takeout, or a big nonfat latte.

Each nosh option has a special ingredient that may help your body recover better and nip postworkout pain in the bud.

The 3 Cs
What, exactly, do these snacks have that others might not? The three Cs: carbs, curcumin, and caffeine. A carb-rich snack like cereal can help you overcome fatigue by restoring glycogen — that stuff your muscles use for energy. Curcumin, a substance found in the Indian spice turmeric, may help quell muscle inflammation. And caffeine from coffee may help block muscle-pain-producing substances.

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Hate the thought of losing your mental edge — or worse, growing senile — as you age? Well, here’s a simple way to slash your risk of dementia by 73 percent:

Go for a power walk. People who regularly walk may be that much less likely to develop dementia compared with their couch-potato peers. Yeah, it’s that simple!

More Blood, Please
Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s. It’s the nosedive that memory and other cognitive functions can take when ailing blood vessels restrict — and sometimes block — the flow of blood to the brain. But because exercise — even mild exercise like walking — increases cerebral blood flow, it may shrink the risk.

Other Brain Savers
People with high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol up their odds of vascular dementia, so controlling those conditions is a start toward staying sharp. Here are a few other brain boosters to try:

Drink up! (Juice, that is.) Drinking fruit or vegetable juice at least three times per week may lower a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study suggests. Antioxidants in the juice may be responsible for the effect. To keep your waistline from expanding, choose low-calorie or pure juices without any added sugar.

Slim down. Get your BMI under 25. It turns out that being seriously overweight not only translates into a greater risk of heart attack, stroke, and a host of other life-threatening conditions, but recent findings indicate that it’s bad for the brain as well. Especially if the weight is concentrated around the middle, because it’s associated with the brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Pop the right pills. Vitamin E and a daily aspirin are a good start.

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