No Dose Aspirin
Many people take low-dose aspirin to prevent heart disease, but no benefit was found in a recent large study called ASPREE, with 19,000 people over five years. Only people with existing heart disease had benefited from daily low-dose aspirin. Check with your doctor as to what’s right for you.
Fat Foods
In a big study of over 50,000 people over 20 years, researchers tracked which foods associated most with weight gain.
The top food associated with weight gain:
French Fries
Sugary beverages
Deli Meats
Red Meat
Food most associated with healthy weight:
Nuts
Fruits
Vegetables
Yogurt
If you eat more from the weight gain list, it might be time to tweak your diet.
Tomatoes Don’t Like a Chill
Tomatoes lose flavour the moment they are picked. If you are lucky enough to get fresh tomatoes in season, don’t refrigerate them. Tomatoes, a tropical plant, don’t like being chilled. They lose some of their flavour compounds permanently when chilled to fridge temperature. To get the full tomato flavour, grow your own and eat them right off the vine. Out of season tomatoes have to be picked before they’re ripe for shipping, so they are never as good.
Good Carbs, Bad Carbs
Some carbs are better than others. The worst carbs, the kind to avoid, is sugar. Foods with lots of sugar or refined carbs, like white cookies, cake, and even bread, are the bad carbs. The good carbs are those in whole grains; vegetables, such as corn, potatoes, beans, and peas; and whole fruits. People who eat moderate carbs, the right ones, tend to be healthier. As in so many things, moderation pays off.
Sink Kidney Stones
Kidney stones are mostly related to calcium. To prevent them, drink lots of water and take a supplement. Both magnesium citrate and potassium citrate reduce the number of kidney stones and their size. The citrate attaches to the calcium in your kidneys and helps flush it out. If you are taking other medications, check with your doctor before taking one of these.
Lift Your Mood with a Bath
A hot bath twice a week can actually help with depression. It seems that raising the body temperature in the afternoon restores the body’s clock, which improves mood, especially in people with depression.
Tasteless Food
Our taste buds are renewed every 10 days. The 4 kinds of taste buds help us taste sweet, sour, bitter, and savoury. We have about 10,000 taste buds, that falls to 5,000 as we age, so flavours are not as intense. Taste bud replacement also slows when we are overweight. A signal slows the production of new taste buds. This may be why we want to eat more; we taste food less.
Sweet Smell of Relaxation
Lavender has long been used as a scent to relax. Researchers have recently confirmed that the compound in lavender does have relaxing effects. It only works through smell, not through eating, and unlike many other relaxants, lavender does not cause any loss of muscle control. Get some real lavender scent to unwind.
Hear Your Brain
Hearing loss can contribute to falls, accidents, and even declines in brain function, but for those with hearing loss, a hearing aid can improve brain function. Using a hearing aid can also enhance social connections with others. If you have trouble hearing, look into a hearing aid and use it. Your brain will love it.
A Drink a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay
Heavy drinking causes a lot of health problems, but drinking one drink a day might reduce your health risks. Once you start drinking more than one a day, alcohol begins to have negative health effects. But don’t worry about a single drink a day — it might be healthy.