Setting clear wellness goals will make a big difference as you move through the decades. It’s important to remember a healthy brain and body improves functioning in all aspects of your life. If you start a self-care system now, all you’ll have to worry about is some stray grays and a few wrinkles—better known as laugh lines, of course.  

Experts have come to a consensus about the most prominent health tips and practices to keep you feeling fresh, young and ready to take on the next task. We’ve curated an outline of basic reminders for a better you. 

Check out our top six health tips:

Diet and Exercise

A better diet and more exercise are regarded as the cornerstones of optimal health. But with so many fad diets, exercise tools and general industry mumbo jumbo, it may be hard to find a place to start.

It’s essential to consume fruits, vegetables and whole grains, in addition to protein and vitamins like calcium and B12. According to the American Heart Association, there are a few basic dietary guidelines to stick to:

• Use at least as many calories as you take in
• Eat a variety of nutritious foods from all the food groups
• Eat less of the nutrient-poor foods, such as foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and sodium

When it comes to exercise, research shows that adults should engage in  30 minutes of moderate physical exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity three days a week. Of course, it’s important to remember that everyone is different.

Developing a personalized plan based on your age, gender and medical history is the best bet. Also, if you have specific goals for your diet and exercise, like losing weight or getting more toned, Prevention provides a guide on how to target your focus.

Diabetes Prevention

A sweet tooth is a common, and seemingly harmless, everyday vice. But the majority of people develop diabetes later in life. In fact, symptoms may not show until you hit your mid-40’s. Type 2 diabetes, also known as gestational diabetes, can sneak up on you and cause serious complications down the line.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body can no longer produce the right amount of insulin. A sedentary lifestyle compounded with excess weight and high sugar consumption exacerbates the risk of type 2 diabetes, among other factors.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases provides more than 50 ways to prevent type 2 diabetes, such as reducing portion sizes, dancing regularly and buying a reusable water bottle to deter you from drinking sugary drinks.

If you think you may be at risk for diabetes, you should also follow self-screening instructions available at DoIHavePrediabetes.org and make an appointment with a physician as soon as possible. You should also check your teeth if they’re decaying because of your sweets intake. Consult an expert like Durham Dental services and get them checked.

Balance Training

As you get older, your bones begin to weaken and become less able to withstand injury. For some, osteoporosis is a looming risk. Ans depending on your age and medical history, a slip or fall could be fatal.

By developing mind and body awareness, you’ll cultivate better balance when cooking, cleaning or on the go. But if you need structure, yoga is a great place to start.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, yoga is one of the top 10 most popular health approaches. Yoga provides clear-cut pose routines to help you stay focused and on your feet.

Even better, you don’t need to sign up for expensive weekly classes. Download free yoga sessions at Yoga Academy, or visit YouTube to start a daily practice at home.

Posture Awareness

While the promotion may be great for your resume, it might not be the best thing for your health. If you work in an office, it’s likely that you spend a lot of time hunched over a computer screen.

Hunchback, referred to in the scientific community as kyphosis, is the development of an abnormal curvature of the spine. Kyphosis affects the cervical, thoracic and sacral regions. Researchers have linked it to complications such as arthritis, Scheuermann’s disease and osteoporosis.

While yoga helps to release tension in the spine, posture braces may be a good option for when you’re sitting, crunching numbers or staring at a screen. And while a brace may not force your back to stay straight, it will provide a gentle reminder to correct your stance. Spine Universe discusses the benefits of bracing and if it’s an appropriate treatment for you.

Sexual Activity

Many people are surprised to learn that sex is healthy. Once you’re protected against disease or unintended pregnancy, sex can be healing for both the mind and body.

Regular sexual activity brings a number of positive biological and psychological impacts. One study, published in the Public Library of Science journal, illustrates that sex can be used for cardiovascular exercise. The benefits of sexual activity also include increased circulation, headache relief and improved sleep.

Sex and intimate touch release a hormone called oxytocin, which increases social bonding and reduces stress. According to Healthline, sex has a number of additional benefits, including:

• Lowering blood pressure
• Burning calories
• Increasing heart health
• Strengthening muscles
• Reducing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and hypertension
• Increasing libido

However, as you age, it may be harder to perform in the bedroom. If you’re having difficulties in your sex life, be honest with your partner. Together, you can find a plan to boost your sex life. If you need help working up to open communication, talk to a physician or sex therapist who can offer you resources for dysfunction.

Practicing Self-Care

Finding time for yourself on a busy day can be difficult. It may seem like there’s never a moment to relax, take a step back and breathe. Eating right, exercising daily and sleeping at least eight hours each night are essential to overall health. But even if you’re keeping up with the major tenants, there are other parts of self-care that may be left out. 

Emerging science has started to confirm the benefits of mindfulness, defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) as “a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment.”

Mindfulness cultivates gratitude and encourages you to care for yourself in new ways, mentally and physically. Mindfulness also has other benefits, according to the APA, including:

• Reduced rumination
• Stress reduction
• Boosts to working memory
• Focus
• More cognitive flexibility
• Relationship satisfaction
• Enhanced insight and intuition

Remember, change takes time. If you have trouble creating a new routine that works for you, don’t be embarrassed to seek help. The organization Find Mindfulness offers introductory courses for daily practices and meditation. However, there are a number of free guided meditations available as online podcasts on YouTube or Spotify. Online casinos can also offer an entertaining and engaging way to relieve stress. Plus, with online casinos, you can experience the rush of gambling without even leaving your home. So, why not check this review and see if gambling can be your stress reliever.

When your mind and body are working together cohesively, you’re able to be your best self. And that’s something we can all get behind, no matter our age, current habits or everyday challenges. Here’s to a better you! 

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A new study explores the idea that certain fruits and vegetables are more beneficial than others when trying to achieve a healthy weight.

Health professionals have made it clear that eating more fruits and vegetables, in conjunction with daily exercise, is the key to weight loss.

However, researchers have discovered that picking and choosing the kinds of fruits and vegetables to eat is crucial to providing a positive impact on weight.

The Study

Eating starchy vegetables such as corn, peas, and potatoes will cause weight gain.
Image: Medical News Today

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Medicine, led by Monica L. Bertoia at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Researchers collected data on the diets of 117,918 men and women in their thirties. The study included check-ins every four years for a total of 24 years.

“We hypothesized that greater consumption of fruits and vegetables with a higher fiber content or lower glycemic load would be more strongly associated with a healthy weight,” according to the study.

While collecting data, researchers took health and behavioral variables into account, including changes in consumption of foods other than fruits and vegetables.

Overall, people who increased the amount of vegetable or fruit foods they consumed over a four-year period gained less weight, measuring at exactly 0.25 pounds less for vegetables and 0.53 pounds for fruit.

Which Plant Foods Decrease Weight Gain?

According to the study, “the benefits of increased consumption were greater for fruits than for vegetables and strongest for berries, apples/pears, tofu/soy, cauliflower, and cruciferous and green leafy vegetables.”
Image: Candidrd

Eating berries every day resulted in 1.11-pound lower weight gain, whereas the consumption of citrus fruits yielded a 0.27-pound lower gain. For apples or pears, subjects gained 1.24 pounds less.

For vegetables, the intake of carrots and peppers was associated with smaller gains. However, potatoes, peas and corn didn’t make much of a difference.

The addition of soy products or tofu amounted to 2.47 pounds less weight gained.

“There are many fruits and vegetables that may be better choices — apples, pears, berries and nonstarchy vegetables,” Bertoia said.

Americans mostly drank fruit juices and ate potatoes, according toBertoia. These don’t really make the weight loss cut.

“People gain too much fat by consuming food and drink that contains more energy (calories) than they need for their daily activities. So, people can avoid becoming obese or reduce their BMI by eating a healthy diet that contains fewer calories and by exercising more,” according to the study.

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While analyzing the toxicity of student meals, researchers found that food provided by schools contains unsafe levels of BPA.

A Stanford study found harmful levels of toxic chemicals in meals prepared and provided by public schools.

Food containing BPA increases health risks for students and disproportionately impacts lower socioeconomic classes who are more likely to eat school lunches.

The Study

BPA absorbed into food products packaged in cans or plastic. 
Image: Fit Day

The study discovered that bisphenol A (BPA) had absorbed into the school food supply through the plastic or canned packages. It was spearheaded by Jennifer Hartle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

The unique study was published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. Researchers attribute the presence of BPA to low-cost packaging that is used to make the food preparation process more effective while adhering to nutrition laws set by the federal government.

“During school site visits, I was shocked to see that virtually everything in school meals came from a can or plastic packaging,” Hartle said. “Meat came frozen, pre-packaged, pre-cooked and pre-seasoned. Salads were pre-cut and pre-bagged. Corn, peaches and green beans came in cans. The only items not packaged in plastic were oranges, apples and bananas.”

In conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, researchers interviewed food service personnel and visited school kitchens and cafeterias in San Francisco. They also measured the levels of BPA concentration in different food items.

Unsurprisingly, they found that BPA exposure varies depending on what the students eat.

If students have pizza, milk, fresh fruits and vegetables for lunch, they would be exposed to a minimum and tolerable level of BPA.  But if pizza and milk are eaten with canned fruits and vegetables, students could be getting up to 1.19 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day.

Researchers suggest that finding appropriate levels of BPA for vulnerable populations like children to consume can come from experiments that measure toxicity thresholds. Although not every species may not metabolize BPA as effectively, the chemicals have a toxic impact on mice at 2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day.

It’s unlikely that most students consume more than 2 micrograms per kilogram per day, but the study found that those who do could ingest more than half of the amount that’s found to be toxic to animals in just one meal.

Effects of BPA Exposure

Exposure to BPA can cause cancer, obesity, ADHD and diabetes, in addition to hormone, heart, brain and behavior problems.
Image: Stanford

BPA is a synthetic compound that has been used to make certain plastics and resins since the 1960s.

Today, the food industry uses polycarbonate plastics containing BPA for storing food and beverages, such as water bottles and other goods. Metal cans, bottle tops and water supply lines are often coated with BPA-containing epoxy resins.

Some research has shown that BPA can seep into food or beverages from containers that are made with BPA. Exposure to BPA is a concern because of possible health effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.

The chemical effects human hormones and increases the risk of developing diseases, such as cancer or reproductive issues. Children are particularly susceptible to hormone disruption through continued exposure to BPA.

“With endocrine-disrupting chemicals particularly, there is so much uncertainty,” said Robert Lawrence, a medical doctor, one of the study’s authors and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

“We can’t tie a specific dose to a specific response like we can with lead. But we know BPA is impacting human health. Animal models are showing there can be a whole range of health effects. This research shows we should take a precautionary approach.”

The biggest impact of BPA exposure is on children who come from low-income families because they are more likely to eat federally-funded lunches. Many low-income students eat breakfast and sometimes even dinner at school. These children could be consuming extremely dangerous levels of BPA.

“Even a dose of one extra microgram per day could be a big deal,” Hartle said. “If this is an avoidable exposure, do we need to risk it? If we can easily cut it out, why wouldn’t we?”

Potential Strategies For Improvement

In addition to urging schools to provide more fruits and vegetables for students, researchers call on parents to make lunches at home.
Image: Correos

In 1988, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that 50 micrograms or less of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day is safe. Today, hundreds of scientific papers detail the dangers of BPA at levels lower than the EPA standard.

The European Food Safety Authority recently updated its standards for safe BPA intake to 4 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. The EPA has allowed Americans to consume 46 micrograms more than European regulators.

The study authors urge regulatory agencies to follow Europe’s lead and lower safety consumption levels. In addition, the authors call for increased funding for researching the effects of low doses of BPA. Through toxicity testing, regulators can gather concrete data and reduce overall risk to public health.

Schools should follow suit and limit BPA consumption by implementing more fresh fruits and vegetables into the student diet. Feeding children more fresh food in packed lunches and at home is also an important step in limiting exposure, according to Hartle.

But be aware that “BPA-free” items are not necessarily safer, as it is likely they possess other harmful chemicals.

“The bottom line is more fresh fruits and vegetables,” Hartle said. “There is a movement for more fresh veggies to be included in school meals, and I think this paper supports that.”

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new study that found one-third of U.S. children eat fast food every day.

Since the 1990s, about one-third of U.S. kids eat fast food every day. Despite increased governmental efforts to promote healthy eating habits, not much has changed.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that there has been no change in levels of fast food consumption or in the amount of calories gained from a fast food diet.

The Study

Almost 35 percent of U.S. children consume fast food on any given day, according to the CDC.
Image: CDC

The study, conducted by the CDC, included 3,100 children ages 2 through 19. Researchers asked the children or their parents about the food they ate in the past 24 hours. The survey was done in 2011 and 2012.

The findings show that some people never eat fast food, while others eat it every day. Adolescents ages 12 to 19 are more likely to eat fast food than children ages 2 to 9.

The researchers found:

• Adolescents got about 17 percent of their daily calories from fast food, compared to about 9 percent in younger children.
• Black, white and Hispanic youth all got roughly the same proportion of their daily calories from fast food — around 12 percent. For Asians, the average was significantly lower, at 8 percent.
• There was no significant difference between kids from families of different income levels. Some studies have found a difference, Fryar noted.

Although calorie totals weren’t included, kids consume about 1,900 calories a day. About 245 calories are from fast food, which is the equivalent of a basic McDonald’s hamburger.

“Previous studies have reported that acculturation to the U.S. lifestyle plays an important role in the adoption of unhealthy behaviors, such as fast food consumption, in Asian-American and other immigrant groups,” according to the study.

Effects Of A Fast Food Diet

Children eating fast food every day will be getting an increased amount of calories, which leads to high body mass index and obesity.
Image: Guardian

Fast food is calorie-heavy, contributing to an obese and overweight population. Drive-thru french fries and takeout pizza are causing a national health concern. Obesity has been stable at about 17 percent over the last decade.

“This analysis found no significant differences in fast food consumption by poverty status or weight status among children and adolescents,” according to the study.

For the last decade, the proportion of calories from fast food has been 12 percent for the last decade, slightly more than the 11 percent previously reported for adults.

“At least we’re not seeing it go up,” said Cheryl Fryar, a study author.

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