Nutrition Aging

Nutrition Aging

While I am aging folks, I do not have time to get old. So I am going to nutrition my way to a successful aging with juicing and smoothies and a few supplements and a lot of physical exercise. And I will not give up meat.

What I will give up is processed foods. I can eat processed foods for a few days, and put on five pounds with no problem.

When I eat processed foods, I find myself quicker to anger, quicker to create and hold a resentment, and noisier, which is not always a good thing for my 11 and 5 year old children or the cats or the phone which I can sometimes still dial faster than electrons can move.

While I am not the world's greatest cook, I love to use a crock pot to make soups and stews and put away the extra for snacks and meals for the next few days.

Since the great recession of 2008-2009 has been upon us I have learned how to shop better than before, and use coupons.

I have even looked at some online tools for coupons and frugal tips. Did you know that Google will allow you to set up alerts and Google will send you an e-mail when information about something you have set up an alert on becomes available, like Halloween candy, since Halloween is coming up?

If I can shop online, I am all for it.

For example, take a look at the banner below, which allows you to print coupons from your computer. Take a look at your local stores, see what they have on sale, use the coupons on sale items, and stock up on goods that you want to have on hand.



But back to nutrition aging. So much of what is written about aging has to do with disease and pathology, and I want to write about what is being discovered about nutrition aging and neuroplasticity or neurogenesis, for example.

Did you know that your brain grows new brain cells everyday, and not just a few, but thousands?

Perhaps you are excited about the potential of aging and having new neurons?

There are some things to do that make neurogenesis possible, and they are physical activity/exercise, nutrition including omega 3 fatty acid, sleep well, manage your stress, and involve yourself in novel learning experiences like computerized brain fitness programs.

If you want to take a look at what experts are saying about nutrition aging and the brain, then I suggest you read Brainfit for Life by Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D. neuroscientists at the University of Michigan. Their entire second chapter is about micro and macro nutrients and how their presence or lack of presence impacts neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, the brains incredible ability to rewire itself.

You can get their book or you can purchase just the chapter you want.

As far as physical activity/exercise goes, I like what 88 year old Bill and 82 year old Pat are doing. Bill and Pat are following a HIIT or high intensity interval training which lasts all of 10 minutes, and they are following their routine to travel with more energy.

Evans and Burghardt spend a great deal of time talking about the role of omega 3 fatty acid in our brain's fitness.

It turns out that we need to get omega 3 for the membranes of our neurons, and we must have it from our diet. If we do not get omega 3 fatty acid from our diets, then those membranes get brittle and communication between neurons is garbled, and that is when you lose both pairs of your glasses.

The best source of omega 3 fatty acid is fish, but if you are worried about mercury poisoning then maybe an appropriately processed omega 3 fatty acid supplement If sleep and stress management are issues impacting your nutrition aging, then I want to recommend the HeartMath heart rate variability biofeedback program.

I have been using HeartMath personally and professionally for 8 years, and it is an extraordinary tool for relaxation.

Your brain needs you to sleep well so that it can complete some important tasks for you while you sleep. The brain consolidates the days activities while you sleep and makes decisions about which of the new plastic connections to keep. If you do not sleep well, your brain cannot efficiently complete that consolidation.

New neurons are killed by stress hormones, booze, or environmental toxins before they can be consolidated, so it is very important to minimize the presence of stress hormones.

Do that with Heartmath and you just might find yourself with an improved memory because all those new neurons are finding their way to the hippocampus, where memory is stored.