A Healthy Lifestyle!

Three simple words you see and hear whenever people talk about aging, nutrition, physical activity and virtually any health-related topic. But what do they really mean? What is a healthy lifestyle? When is it too late to start making healthy choices? What difference will a healthy lifestyle really make at the end anyway? Why take the time, energy and money to make healthy choices every day of your life?

At the end of your life - usually the years between 60 and 80, a healthy lifestyle can make the difference between being "Happy-Well" or "Sad-Sick."

The Happy-Well are healthy older adults who find life satisfying. The Sad-Sick have various aliments, some serious and some just annoying. They seem to find little pleasure in their daily lives. These categories (along with "Prematurely Dead") are from a book by George Vaillant, a psychiatrist who analyzed the results of the longest, most comprehensive studies of human aging. Using the Harvard Medical School Study of Adult Development and several other long-term surveys, Vaillant reached a dramatic conclusion: We are very much in control of our own aging.

What is a healthy lifestyle?

In his 2001 book "Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development," Vaillant identified seven major lifestyle factors that predict, at age 50, what an individual's life will be like at 80. Here's what he found as the physical and psychological predictors of aging well:

1. Never smoking or quitting early.
   Like other health experts, Vaillant believes smoking may be the "most significant factor in terms of health." If you smoke, quitting is the place to start on the search for a long and healthy life.

2. Refraining from alcohol abuse.
   If you choose to drink alcohol, moderation is the key. Any benefits from alcohol, such as improved heart health, come from a maximum of one to two drinks per day. Alcohol abuse destroys physical and mental health, as well as families, marriages and job performance.

3. Being physically active.
   Listing the benefits of physical activity could fill many pages. Normally, careful scientists use words like "astounding" to describe the payback of regular activity. One expert even calculated that every hour of strenuous activity equals two hours of additional lifespan.

4. Having a healthy weight.
   Being overweight does increase your risk of several chronic diseases such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and of dying prematurely. However, overly restrictive fad diets, yo-yo dieting and being significant underweight are also unhealthy.

5. Enjoying a solid marriage.
   In Vaillant's study, Happy-Well adults were six times more likely to be in good marriages than Sad-Sick people. Study after study has confirmed this finding �married people tend to live longer than those who were never married or divorced.

6. Learning to handle stress.
   Stress is a fact of life. The secret, in psychological terms, is to have "mature defenses" against the effects of stress. Vaillant sums it up as: "Have a sense of humor, give of yourself to others, make friends younger than you, learn new things and have fun."

7. Being educated.
   The more years of school people have, the longer and healthier their lives tend to be. Vaillant speculates this is because those who see self-care and perseverance as important are also more likely to engage in lifelong education. It's never too late to learn more.

Here is the single best piece of news about aging well: It is never too late nor too early to begin making wise choices. If you think that you have already sealed your fate with 40 or even 50 years of unhealthy living, just consider these research findings:

• People in their 80s and 90s can build muscle mass. Using small hand weights on a regular basis, nursing home residents increased their strength, lean body mass and overall fitness levels.

• A daily walk can also make an immediate difference in your health and your risk for debilitating diseases. A few weeks of regular walking can significantly improve blood pressure, blood sugar and even blood cholesterol levels.

• Eating breakfast every morning is another way to improve your weight, health and even your attitude. Breakfast is critical for children's performance in school, and it can have a similar impact on adult performance at work.

The earlier in life you start healthy habits, the more likely you are to enjoy the benefits of aging well. The reasons are obvious. It's easier to start doing something right from the beginning than it is to break a bad habit after 30 or 40 years. Taking good care of your body from the beginning also means you don't have to repair damage later on.

So, how would you like to grow old? Do you want to age well - living long and joining the ranks of the Happy-Well? Is your goal, like the famous South African heart surgeon, Dr. Christaan Barnard, to "die late in life as 'young' as possible?"

Or are you content to live the average American sedentary lifestyle and end up among the sad and sick?

While there are no guarantees and no magic fountains of youth, you do have choices about how you age. Each day, in multiple ways, you can choose to do nothing about the so-called "normal" process of aging, or you can choose to take control of your own health.

Adapted from Dayle Hayes @ billingsgazette.com

Pile on the Fruits and Veggies

The revised and updated U.S. Food Guide Pyramid --- better known as the food guidance system because planners aren't yet certain what shape it will take --- will encourage Americans to increase fruit and vegetable consumption by almost half.

This will mean increasing fruit and vegetable consumption from 3 cups a day to a whopping five cups a day for most people.

Planners behind the new system believe the new approach is much simpler to understand. Equally important, it emphasizes what should be added rather than taken away, according to one nutritionist who sat in on a final review of the new guidelines last week.

Other changes call for reducing the daily grain recommendations slightly, from 4 to 3 cups. Milk and milk products, on the other hand, would increase from 2 to 3 cups to 3 cups.

Meat, poultry and fish selections would remain the same at three-quarters of a cup.

Several factors are driving the increased emphasis on fruits and vegetables:

1. The critical need among most Americans for potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C commonly found in these foods.

2. Research showing the strong role these foods, particularly dark green and dark orange vegetables, play in reducing chronic disease.

3. The fact that these foods not only are low in calories but high in fiber --- two factors that contribute to trimmer bodies.