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The holidays are filled with rolls, eggnog, brownies, fudge, candy, and pretty much anything else you could imagine that is unhealthy, which is why immediately proceeding the holidays is the New Year, where we can all make a goal to live healthier and get in shape for the summer. Around this time of year, millions buy diet plans or health supplements to aid them in their quest for the perfect body. However, some of these products are effective and some are not. Finding the correct plan for the New Year is not an easy task.

Many people set such lofty expectations for their New Year’s Diet that it is impossible to fulfill their goal. A diet needs to be sustainable, meaning that you have to be able to live while you are on it and do it for a long amount of time. Any diet that limits your choices of food to just a few things is not going to work. For instance, a friend of mine tried a diet in which she only ate salmon and fish related products for nearly a month. Sure, fish oils and the nutrients found in salmon are good for you, but they only make up a part of your entire nutritional needs. Another popular “diet” is the protein diet in which you only eat foods that are mostly protein, like nuts and egg whites. These are more fads than diets. Also, no one can survive by only eating 500 calories a day, or some other ridiculously low number. Make your diet feasible and realistic.

If you are considering a nutritional supplement to aid in your new diet, like Acai berries, or a more chemical-based weight loss supplement, understand that those are secondary to diet and exercise, meaning you shouldn’t expect to completely lose all of your weight because of them. Some supplements are good aids, but if you read carefully you see that none are effective without a proper diet and exercise schedule. Just make sure the supplement is not counterproductive by being harmful to your body, and don’t expect the supplement to be a cure in and of itself.

New Year’s diets are great goals, and even if you try and fail, at least you ate healthier for a few months. The most effective way to get in shape is to hire a trainer and nutritionalist, but they can be expensive. Increasing your exercise alone will make you healthier, as will cutting out unnecessary food like lattes or candy; sometimes it is best not to overcomplicate the situation and just stick with the basics.

Moderate exercise could save your body and your head
Carlin Flora (Psyched for Success)

Perhaps you’ve resisted exercise all these years because you’re more interested in the life of the mind than the oh-so-vain pursuit of corporeal perfection. But while all the news of exercise’s benefits to your heart and lungs hasn’t gotten your nose out of books and your sneakers out of the closet, you may now be persuaded to move. Physical activity, it turns out, could save not just your body but also your precious head. Lifelong exercise has been shown to decrease cellular aging in the brain: Moderately active rats have more robust brain cells than their sedentary fellow rats, researchers from the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida found.

That means regular mild exercise can evidently prevent brain deterioration in humans, too, says Thomas Foster, Evelyn McKnight chair for brain research in memory loss at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine. Oxidative damage, a natural consequence of aging, contributes to memory loss and has been implicated in development of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It occurs when oxygen molecules become free radicals, renegades that damage cell tissues. Rats that had access to an exercise wheel were found to have fewer byproducts of oxidative stress in their brains than those that did not.

Fit rats also showed healthier DNA. “The DNA for these animals after two years looked as if it were from their younger counterparts of only about 6 months of age,” Foster said. Because damage to DNA causes cell mutations and cell death, finding ways to preserve it may help prevent age-related memory failure and defend against loss of balance and motor function. “By age 50 almost everyone has mild memory deficits. We forget where we put the keys or jumble the names of our kids. If these losses increase, then we run into problems.”

Cheer up, couch potatoes—we’re not talking marathons or even hour-long spin classes here. “For this study animals were not forced to run; they did it because it was entertaining, the same as a pet hamster on a running wheel,” said Foster. “In people, that translates to a daily 30-minute walk or a light 1-mile run.”

The finding complements past research showing the mental benefits of light workout sessions. Scores of studies show that short stints of exercise increase a protein called BDNF, or Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, which helps nerve cells grow and connect. In rat studies conducted by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla and his colleagues at UCLA, even a few minutes of swimming raised levels of BDNF.

The benefits of BDNF are many. Rats with boosted BDNF in their brains navigate mazes better, heal faster from brain injuries, and are even more likely to avoid a type a behavior that is akin to rodent depression than cage mates with lower levels of the protein.

Workouts don’t just protect brains, it seems, but also improve thinking. In a comparison of 18 studies, inactive older adults who began an exercise routine got significantly better at cognitive tests that measured skills such as planning and paying attention. Again, these subjects’ regimen was quite manageable: Just three days a week, they worked up from a slow 15-minute walk to a 45-minute jaunt. So put down your crossword puzzle and jog around the neighborhood. Don’t be surprised if the answer to that inscrutable clue hits you when you return.

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The foods that give you an anti-aging boost
Katie Gilbert  (Psyched for Success)

Next time you’re ambling down the produce aisle, keep an eye out for some of the smallest and little—known food superheroes—dark berries.

A study finds that adding boysenberries and black currants to your diet can give you an anti-aging boost that can protect all parts of your body and even postpone the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Berries and other colorful fruits and veggies are chock full of polyphenols, a type of antioxidant that buffers against disease by protecting even the tiniest of bodily cells from the natural stresses of the environment and aging. These helpful chemicals—also found in green tea, olive oil, dark chocolate and pomegranates—keep your cells (and you) vibrant and active.

How can you reap the benefits of these mighty little age-fighters? One author of the study, which will appear in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, offers some refreshingly simple advice: Eat your colors.

Since polyphenols are largely responsible for providing plants their hues, choosing a varied color palate translates into treating your body to a vast array of the antioxidants. Include blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, purple grape juice, pomegranates on your plate. The more closely your diet resembles a rainbow, the better.

People may not realize a colorful diet is actually a heart-healthy diet, says James Joseph, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Lab at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Antioxidants protect arteries by keeping them supple and strong. Healthy arteries not only mean a healthy cardiovascular system but healthy gray matter as well. Says Joseph: “What’s good for your heart is also good for your brain.”

It’s possible that someday we’ll use berry extracts in supplements or processed foods, says Joseph, but he believes that the eating fresh berries provides the most bang for your buck. Important compounds can easily be lost in processing berries, he says. Indeed, there may be chemicals in fruits and veggies that we haven’t even been identified.

Still, adding color to your diet isn’t a quick fix. If you’re serious about heart and brain health, “you want to make this a lifestyle,” Joseph says. Healthy living means the triad of behavior: diet, physical and mental exercise.

Exercise affects brain in a way that’s similar to polyphenols. Researchers from the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida find that rats with exercise wheels in their cages show fewer signs of aging in their brains than their sedentary peers, and the same conclusions have been drawn by comparing elderly humans who exercise with those who do not.

That leaves mental exercise as the last leg in the triad. Reading books, tackling crossword puzzles and other kinds of brain workouts may be as powerful in Alzheimer’s prevention as black currants and boysenberries.

Knowing is half the battle. Now that we know food and exercise are potent weapons in the battle against disease, we have one less excuse not to put up a superhero-worthy fight

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