YOU: On a Diet ( June 5th - Sept. 25th )

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•Diet Devotion

Worry less about which diet to try and more about whether you can stick with it.

As long as a diet provides healthful and balanced nutrition, the type of diet you choose may not matter much to your long-term goals.


In a study, researchers found that diet adherence was a much more important factor
than the kind of diet people chose when it came to how much weight people lost.


Take stock of your eating preferences and lifestyle when you choose a diet.

Your ability to stay with it long term will depend in part on how easy you find the program to maintain.

Before you revamp your diet, consider the following questions:
Does the program entail cooking or pre-prepared foods? Will you be able to eat out?
Will you eventually feel deprived by the elimination of a food group?

You'll be more likely to stick with a diet that fits easily into your lifestyle and doesn't leave you feeling deprived.

A combination of balanced, nutritious eating habits and regular exercise remains your best defense against weight gain and related chronic diseases.

RealAge Benefit: Maintaining your weight and body mass index at a desirable level can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

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Key to Losing Weight: Weekends

What’s the real key to losing weight, you ask? It’s all about the weekends.

Seems those Saturday afternoon naps and Sunday morning brunches throw a real wrench into weight loss efforts. In fact, weekend indulgences can add up to as much as a 9-pound gain in a year, research shows. Read on for weekend willpower . . .

A Real Diet Killer

In a study of weekend behavior, people on diet or exercise routines consistently stopped losing weight -- or worse, gained it -- over the weekends. They showed a net weekly gain of almost 9 pounds a year! Suddenly, that Saturday afternoon double-fudge sundae doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

The Solution

Fortunately, you don’t have to lose your weekends to drop the pounds. First step: Pass on the all-you-can-eat brunch buffet. Make your own breakfast at home -- something that tastes decadent but is actually good for you.

Next, mow the lawn. Wash the car. Walk the dog. Just do something that gets you moving. The study participants not only ate more on weekends but exercised less -- a double whammy for your waistline.

RealAge Benefit: Maintaining a constant desirable weight can make your RealAge 6 years younger.

[jezzie]

The Easiest Way to Get Healthier Tonight

Don’t answer that e-mail. Doctor’s orders! See, your body doesn’t respond as well as you think it might to the “get ahead now, sleep when you’re retired” philosophy.

A group of 32- to 59-year-olds who got fewer than 5 hours of sleep a night for several years were twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as those who got a healthy 7 to 8 hours each night.

If you’ve shorted your sleep in favor of peeking at your inbox one more time or searching for the ultimate Spiderman costume for your kids, you’re like most people over age 30 who are getting historically low levels of sleep. Blood pressure is on the rise in this young age group, too, and is related to lack of sleep. Here’s how it works:

• When you snooze, your body goes into a lower blood pressure mode. Too little time in this low-key state can lead to consistently high blood pressure.

• Less sleep means you spend more time dealing with stress instead of resting.

Cutting back on a full night’s sleep again and again also adds to your desire to eat. That’s because lack of sleep leads to a lack of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine. Your brain receptors crave dopamine, so they trigger sugar cravings in your body because sugar also releases dopamine -- but constantly overdoing sugary foods increases your weight and your high blood pressure risk.

If getting enough shuteye is a challenge, consider this: Whatever's tempting you to stay up late will still be there tomorrow. But with rest, you'll do those tasks better -- and probably faster.

[jezzie]

4 Simple Ways to Superpower Your Salad

Salad is pretty healthful to start with, to be sure. But not all salads are created equal. (Case in point: iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing. Wimpy!)

So follow these four simple steps for making sure you up the antioxidant ante for all your garden greens:

1. Dress for Success
Dress your salad with an olive oil-based dressing. This good fat helps you absorb the nutrients in the salad. Mix the oil with apple or wine vinegars for extra antioxidants.

2. Herb It Up
Lemon balm and marjoram can increase a salad’s antioxidant capacity by 150–200 percent!

3. Vary Your Veggies
Artichokes, beetroot, broccoli, garlic, leeks, radishes, spinach, and onions were the chart-topping antioxidant-rich veggies in a recent study -- though they’re not everyone’s favorites.

4. Branch Out . . .
. . . with new leaves. Some colorful red chicory or purple cabbage, for example, will add crunch to your salad -- as well as extra antioxidants.

RealAge Benefit: Getting the right amount of antioxidants through diet or supplements can make your RealAge 6 years younger.

[jezzie]

Silence: Golden for Your Heart

Live near a busy intersection? Dig your downloaded iTunes? Then lowering your blood pressure (BP) may be as easy as shutting the window or turning down your player.

Too much noise exposure correlates with a steady rise in blood pressure. Makes sense. Loud sounds are known to stimulate the pituitary-adrenal cortical system.

Lay Off the Loudness

Heart rate basically soars in response to sudden loud sounds, like slamming doors or honking horns. But a gradual rise in noise hurts, too. In a study of assembly plant workers, the higher the volume got, the higher their blood pressure rose. Simple earplug use was enough to drop systolic blood pressure as much as 5.5 mm Hg. So just imagine what turning down your car stereo could do!

3 More Blood Pressure Points

Noise isn’t the only thing that can boost your blood pressure. Here are some other culprits to attend to:

* Squishiness. Yeah, you know what we mean.
* Potato chips. You aren’t doing your blood pressure any favors with high-calorie, nutrition-poor snacks that pack on pounds.
* An empty social calendar. That’s right. Loneliness boosts blood pressure.

RealAge Benefit: Keeping your blood pressure at 115/76 mm Hg can make your RealAge as much as 12 years younger.

[jezzie]

Shell out. It's good for your heart.

Need an excuse to splurge on crab legs, crab salad, or a cold crab cocktail on a hot summer night? How about avoiding heart disease and cancer? Crab meat in general, and crab legs in particular, are loaded with zinc, a powerful antioxidant that's just been found to help ward off both health threats.

Getting your daily dose of zinc -- up to 12 milligrams (mg) per day -- can help protect you from heart disease and cancer. In a recent study, these killers were linked not only to a lack of zinc but also to an excess of copper and a deficiency in magnesium. And being low on zinc made any problems with the other two minerals much worse.

Researchers are still trying to determine whether the minerals were the direct cause of the outcome, but while they sort out the science, aim for 12 mg of zinc daily from food. Can't hurt, could help, and -- if you've got a yen for crab -- it tastes terrific.

Of course, crab's not the only good source of zinc. Oysters can't be beat, and clams and lobster are high on the list, too. On a more wallet-friendly level, you'll find beneficial amounts of zinc in nuts, peanut butter, beans, poultry, red meat, whole grains, fortified breakfast cereals, and yogurt. And a multivitamin with minerals will fill in any gaps.

RealAge Benefit: Protecting your immune system can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

[jezzie]

300 Reasons You Need More of This Mineral

Okay, exhale. I’m not planning to spell out all 300 -- but that’s how many vital bodily functions require this mighty mineral: magnesium. Yet three out of four of us don’t get as much magnesium as we need, according to Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of The Essential Guide to Vitamins and Minerals.

So there’s a 75% chance that you’re low on it, yet you’ve probably never given the mineral a second thought. Why? Partly because magnesium just isn’t a headline grabber --yet -- like calcium, folic acid, and iron. But it should be. Here are seven key reasons why getting enough is so important. (We’ll save the other 293 for another day).

Magnesium helps you cope with stress. Stress hormones drain magnesium from the body, and low magnesium raises stress hormones. In this chicken-and-egg situation, getting enough gives you an edge in both directions.

It keeps your blood pressure healthy. Magnesium works with sodium, calcium, potassium, and other minerals to help regulate blood pressure.

It helps curb PMS. During the last two weeks of the menstrual cycle, magnesium levels drop, which can contribute to water retention, cramping, headaches, and an oversensitive nervous system. Getting 320 milligrams (mg) of the mineral a day could help counter these problems.

It cuts your diabetes risk by a third. Shortages can lead to insulin resistance, a condition that sends your blood sugar soaring, which is almost an engraved invitation for diabetes.

It’s a must for sturdy bones. More than 50% of your body’s magnesium is in your bones. Shortages disturb the calcium balance and bone metabolism, raising your risk of osteoporosis.

It could spare you a heart attack. Research suggests that magnesium reduces the formation of artery-blocking blood clots.

And it may prevent painful gallstones. Magnesium deficiency boosts bad triglycerides and lowers good HDL cholesterol -- both encourage cholesterol-filled gallstones.

So, how much do you need . . . and how do you get it?

Women need about 320 mg of magnesium a day; men, about 420 mg. Here’s an example of all it takes to get that much from a day's worth of eating:

For women:

1 glass of soymilk for breakfast
2 slices of 100% whole-wheat bread on your lunch sandwich
1 palmful of almonds for an afternoon snack
1/2 cup of brown rice and 2 cups of spinach salad for dinner

For men:

Same menu as above, but add 2/3 of a cup of kidney beans to dinner.

You can fill in any gaps with a supplement, but limit your total daily dose to about 600 mg, because heftier amounts can cause diarrhea (just remember what Milk of Magnesia does!).

Other good daily food sources of magnesium include nuts in general, oatmeal, shredded wheat, wheat bran, bran flakes . . . hmm, notice a trend here? Yes, whole grains are a spiffy source of magnesium -- and there's a bonus:
Eating 6 servings of whole grains a day can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger. Nice.

[jezzie]

The Cheapest Ways to Get Healthy

Keep your eye on that 42-inch flat-screen TV you’ve been wanting. Even though the economy stinks more than an athlete’s socks, you can live healthfully and still have the stuff you want (within reason, of course). Being healthy won’t hog your budget, if you know where to save and where to spend.

We know it’s not always obvious. Take the $1 menu at fast-food restaurants. Sounds like a deal, what with food prices escalating faster than bidding wars for Angelina photos.

The trouble is, it’s really a $10 menu, because for each $1 spent there, you need to save $9 more for future costs -- letting out your clothes, dealing with the stress of weight gain, buying diet books, and cleaning up the health-busting inflammation that fatty fast foods instigate.

Here’s where to save and where to splurge, so your wallet stays fat (or that flat screen finally comes home) and your body stays healthy.

Save: Always buy fruit and vegetables in season. This old-fashioned wisdom guarantees the best produce for the least coin. And peak produce is easy to spot. Just look for whatever’s most plentiful at the grocery or farmers market. In season now: The last of summer’s peaches, tomatoes, corn, and peppers. Coming next? Apples, pears, winter squash, yams, and brussels sprouts.

Save: Find a buddy. A health club can easily cost $50 or $100 per month -- plus the gas to get there. Save big by teaming up with a neighbor, a “virtual” Internet workout partner, or a spouse. Who’s a good buddy? Someone who genuinely wants you both to succeed in getting healthier. The accountability and cheerleading you give each other will get both of you up and out when it’s raining, it’s cold, or you’re just plain tired -- and that’s priceless. Alternatively, enlist the bored mutt who’s been gnawing on your slippers: In one study, walking Fido 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week led to a 14-pound weight loss for humans. The canines got healthier, too.

Save: Look for healthy bargains. They’re usually right in front of you. One recent USDA study found that you can get three fruit servings plus four vegetable servings a day for a total of 64 cents -- much less than the cost of a candy bar or a fast-food snack. Other healthy, low-cost choices include oatmeal instead of expensive boxed cereals; beans instead of red meat; and frozen orange juice concentrate instead of fruit punch, soda, or bottled OJ.

Save: Quit smoking. There are scores of reasons to do this, but the one that fits this column is that the average price of a pack of cigarettes is $4.22, and as much as $7.50 to $10 in places like Chicago and New York City. If you’re a pack-a-day smoker, quitting will put an extra $1,540 or more per year in your pocket while it removes all kinds of gunk from your lungs.

Splurge: Treat your feet. The 26 bones in your feet get a pounding every day. Take care of them with well-cushioned, well-fitted walking or running shoes and they’ll take care of you. Always wear them when you’ll be walking or standing for long periods of time; replace every 6 to 9 months. Get measured, wearing your favorite sports socks, at least once.

Splurge: Spring for a pedometer. For the price of two movie tickets and some popcorn, you can own a powerful fitness tool: a step counter. A good one costs $15 to $20 (supercheap models are notoriously inaccurate). Clip it on and set out. Goal 1: Walk 30 minutes a day, every day. Goal 2: Work up to 10,000 steps a day (Dr. Mike does 12,000). As you progress, watch your blood pressure plummet and your body’s physical age -- your RealAge -- grow younger.

Don’t sit on the couch or turn on that flat screen until you’ve hit 10,000 steps each day. It will make you not only younger but also richer, because you’ll avoid expensive diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol drugs.

[jezzie]

Slim Down with This Vitamin

Lose a pound recently? Great! Then keep it off with this mighty nutrient: vitamin C.

Research shows that your body needs sufficient vitamin C to burn fat -- and burning fat is key to keeping excess pounds away. So pop your C supplement, or snack on some C-rich orange sections before your next power walk.

A Critical Compound

People in a study who had low blood concentrations of vitamin C and walked on a treadmill for an hour burned 25 percent less fat than people with adequate C. But a dose of C brought fat-burning levels back up to par. Why? Seems C is essential for creating carnitine, a substance that turns fat into fuel. Find out how much C you need with this tool.

How Much Is Enough

To keep the pounds you dropped from coming right back, you could start your day with some grapefruit, have an orange after lunch, or fill your dinner plate with C-rich veggies like red bell peppers, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. Here are a few more reasons to C up!

* For a better smile.
* For a stronger heart: Vitamin C makes bad cholesterol less dangerous.
* For more powerful lung.

RealAge Benefit: Getting 1,200 milligrams of vitamin C per day from food and supplements can make your RealAge as much as 1 year younger.

[jezzie]

Is This Mineral Missing from Your Milk?

Notice anything absent from your soy latte this morning? We did: Your favorite way to wake up may have less calcium than you expected. Research shows that a large percentage of the calcium that’s added to beverages settles at the bottom of the carton, so less of the bone-building mineral ends up in your glass (unless you’re the lucky one who polishes off the container).

How much calcium falls to the bottom depends on which calcium-fortified beverage you’re drinking. In one study, calcium in orange juice stayed in suspension best (although different brands tended to have different separation rates). About 8% to 50% of the calcium separated out of the juice; more settled out of soymilk and rice milk.

The fix? Pretty simple, and we bet you guessed it: Shake the carton before drinking. Even so, one study found that vigorous shaking didn’t resuspend all the calcium. If you’re really concerned about calcium, sip beverages where it naturally appears in abundance, like dairy products. Only about 11% of the calcium in nonfat milk separates out.

Of course, all the calcium in the carton won’t help you if you don’t also get vitamin D, the nutrient that helps calcium get absorbed into your body. It’s not much good for you to get calcium to your intestinal doors if D’s not around to let it in.

We recommend getting 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D if you’re under age 60 and 1,200 IU if you’re over 60. By the way, we also recommend 300 milligrams of magnesium a day to prevent constipation from the calcium.

[jezzie]

This Color Can Make You Healthier

When it comes to fruit and legumes, it’s pretty much impossible to reach for anything bad. But you can often get extra goodies by reaching for red. Not only do naturally red foods make your meals look like they just arrived from a photo shoot, but they pile on the health benefits, too. Try these three heavy hitters:

Red bell peppers: They have almost twice as much vitamin C as their green siblings. And getting ample C is credited with a 30% reduction in the risk of stroke, one of the top causes of death and disability in North Americans. Vitamin C helps your arteries stay young and keeps your immune system strong.

Red kidney beans: These are right up there with blueberries when it comes to total phytonutrient value. And phytonutrients -- protective substances found in plant foods -- help your body produce more of its own antioxidants. These defenders swiftly mop up free radicals (cellular by-products that can damage DNA and lead to cancer, heart disease, and early aging). So brighten up salads now and stews later by tossing in some crimson beauties.

Red grapefruit: The red varieties contain more lycopene -- a phytonutrient that may add extra anticancer and heart-health benefits -- than white grapefruit does. Lycopene is absorbed better, though, when fat is around, so try tossing red grapefruit segments into sautes or salads drizzled with canola or olive oil. Or if you love spooning out the sections one by one on Sunday morning, eat them with a side of whole-grain toast spread with peanut butter. You’re good to go.

[jezzie]

Think of This Number, Get Healthier

How many steps will you walk today? You don’t know? What, you don’t have a pedometer yet? People who have a number in mind (and track it with a pedometer) walk a whole lot more than people who don’t have one. Studies prove it. Honest.

The best number to go for is 10,000. That’s not that many more than you’re probably already taking. Most people log between 3,500 and 5,000 steps daily just by looking for the remote, double-checking that they fed the dog, and otherwise going about their days.

Even if you take 5,000 steps throughout the day -- about 2 ½ miles -- experts (and even we YOU docs) consider you to be less than minimally active, or what our research friends politely term sedentary. But the good news is that if you’re doing that much without even trying, it’s not going to be that hard to bump up to the amount that counts when it comes to making your RealAge younger.

Research shows that people who kept the 10,000-step goal in mind literally walked the extra mile, logging about 2,000 extra steps a day. Wear a pedometer and experiment. How close to your goal do you get by taking the long way to the cafeteria or the produce section of the grocery store? Dr. Mike parks his car in the indoor lot that’s farthest from his office at the Cleveland Clinic.

Those extra milers also lost weight and improved their blood pressure. Do it and bring on other benefits: Walking lowers lousy LDL, raises healthy HDL, and decreases inflammation. And our favorite: It makes you feel great.

[jezzie]

The Peppery Green Your Lungs Love

There's a peppery green related to mustard and garden cress that your lungs truly love. It's watercress.

In fact, a daily bowl may protect against lung cancer, according to John La Puma, MD, author of ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

A Lung-Loving Substance

In a study of both smokers and nonsmokers, those who ate about a cereal-bowl's worth of fresh watercress daily for 8 weeks had less DNA damage to white blood cells -- with smokers seeing the most significant benefit.

Makes sense, since it's also thought that the isothiocyanates in watercress may thwart a potent carcinogen in tobacco, according to La Puma. And watercress is darn nutritious to boot. It's chock-full of vitamins, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and lutein, as well as mustard oil.

Where to Get the Good Stuff

One quick and easy way to get watercress? Drink a V8. It's one of the main vegetables in the juice.

RealAge Benefit: Eating a diverse diet that includes 5 servings of vegetables per day can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger.

[jezzie]

Do This Now for Less Pain Later

Know those little aches and pains you feel in the morning? You could do something right now to keep them from getting worse when you're older.

Just jump to it. Okay, you don’t have to literally jump. But do be active. People who pick up their feet and commit to regular aerobic exercise have much less muscle and joint pain as they age.

How Much Less?

A 14-year study that followed a healthy over-60 crowd found that consistent exercise -- be it running, biking, swimming, dancing, or brisk walking -- led to as much as 25 percent less musculoskeletal pain down the road. Yes, even with the high-impact runners. Researchers aren't sure why, but they suspect that exercise’s endorphin release may play a role.

Looking Ahead

Less pain when you're older means a more active and independent life. Here are a few other ways to lower your risk of chronic future aches:

* Hit the mat. Yoga boosts endorphins and improves flexibility and joint-supporting strength.
* Cross-train. Mixing up your activities helps keep your back in good shape.
* Have a cup or two . . . of green tea.

RealAge Benefit: Exercising regularly can make your RealAge as much as 9 years younger.

[jezzie]

The Fruit Your Colon Craves

If you had to choose one fruit to keep your colon happy, which would it be?

If you said apples, that's not a bad choice. The kind of fiber in apples -- called pectin -- appears to both bump up colon-protective compounds and clamp down on cancer-causing ones.

The Power of Pectin

In a lab study, apple pectin increased levels of butyrate, a fatty acid that not only keeps colon tissue healthy but also slows the production of a cancer-causing substance. Apple juice extracts amped up butyrate as well.

3 More Keys to Colon Health

To keep your colon in good shape, get screened for colon cancer on a schedule recommended by your doctor. And here are some specific diet do's:

* Load up on whole grains for fiber.
* Drink milk instead of soda. Calcium and vitamin D protect your colon, but sugar seems to do the opposite.
* Add sliced onions to a salad or sub. You may need to carry breath mints everywhere, but boosting your cancer defenses is worth it!

RealAge Benefit: Eating 25 grams (38 grams if you are a man under 50) of fiber per day makes your RealAge 2.5 years younger than eating 12 grams of fiber per day.

[jezzie]

Can You Spot the Cancer Myths?

In some ways, cancer is like pests in your house -- the cells have no regard for the traditional rules of your body. Nonetheless, if you know their strategies, you can help yourself outwit them. How good are your cancer smarts? Guess which statements are true:

1. Benign tumors should always be left alone. Benign tumors don't have cancer cells, but they can still be dangerous and need to be removed. That's because some tumors can grow large enough to block the pathway of important nutrients or put pressure on critical organs.

2. If you're diagnosed with cancer, you need treatment immediately. Even though some cancers spread quickly, it's smart to get a second opinion. Although only 10% of people get second opinions, 30% of second opinions change the diagnosis or treatment. More than one in five patients referred to our hospitals -- New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic -- for a specific surgery do not need it.

Great docs encourage you to get second opinions, especially since biopsies of common cancers are read incorrectly more than 10% of the time, according to two different studies. The best second opinion comes from a doctor at an institution other than where the first doctor practices and who is well regarded for the treatment of a particular type of cancer.

3. Cancer is contagious. Some cancers -- like cervical cancer, or liver cancer caused by hepatitis B -- are caused by viruses that are contagious (that’s why there are vaccines). So in a way, you can catch cancer. But you can't directly swap cancer through being in a room with or touching or hugging someone.

[jezzie]

3 New Miracle Foods to Add to Your Grocery List

Here's why these three foods are practically a staple among health-conscious celebs and foodies. Plus, we tell you how to pronounce them, so you can casually order an acai smoothie with all the cool of George Clooney.

Acai berries (ah-sigh-EE or ah-SIGH-ee): Brazilian surfers eat theirs with granola, and you know what their bodies look like! Packed with twice the disease-fighting antioxidants of blueberries, acai has already made Oprah's list of top 10 superfoods and the Washington Post called the blackberry-flavored fruit the "new pomegranate."

But you may find it easier to sip yours: Celestial Seasonings sells an acai-green tea blend, and acai martinis are on chic bar menus everywhere.

• DIY acai fruit soda: Just mix chilled sparkling mineral water with a few ounces of acai juice, available at health-food stores. Sip. Look cool. Feel healthy.

Quinoa (KEEN-wah): Dry quinoa looks a bit like sesame seeds, but when cooked it becomes fluffy and has a hint of crunch, making it an excellent substitution for rice, couscous, and pasta. Quinoa's major claim to food fame, however, is what RealAge experts call its "nutritional profile."

A cup of quinoa has more protein than a quarter-pound hamburger and more calcium than a quart of milk. Yowza! It's also loaded with iron, magnesium, and a bevy of other minerals and B vitamins. No wonder the Incas named it "the mother grain."

Matcha (MAH-cha): When you drink a cuppa matcha (also spelled maccha), you're getting green tea's powerful antioxidants to the max, because you're actually consuming the whole green tea leaf in powdered form. In Japan, slightly bitter matcha is traditionally served syrupy thick. But in the U.S., you'll find matcha stirred into lattes, sprinkled on ice cream, and used to bolster energy drinks and turn smoothies into pick-me-ups (it's said to boost alertness). Just be respectful of matcha if you're caffeine sensitive: Ounce for ounce, it has almost as much caffeine as coffee.

• To rev up a hot homemade latte, whisk in 1/2 teaspoon of the powder.
• For a quick summer cooler, blend 1 1/2 teaspoon with a cup of milk and some ice cubes.

[jezzie]

More Strawberries, More Antioxidant Absorption

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have assessed the human body's capacity for absorbing certain antioxidant compounds in strawberries, and have found that the absorption of one key beneficial plant chemical was not "maxed out" as volunteers ate more of this popular fruit.

Foods high in antioxidants may be excellent sources of healthful compounds, and researchers are striving to learn more about their ability to be absorbed and utilized within the human body.

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The study showed that the human body is capable of assimilating more anthocyanin pigments as intakes increase. The results will help nutrition scientists evaluate the healthful properties of individual anthocyanins and aid plant breeders in developing varieties with optimal anthocyanin content.

More Strawberries, More Antioxidant Absorption

[jezzie]

An Easy Way to Eat Less

Separate your lunch and your favorite Web site and your waist may shrink. See, holding a mouse in one hand leaves the other free to dip into that family-sized bag of potato chips and polish it off before your mind -- or your stomach -- has any idea what’s happening.

Normally, if you’re sitting around with friends and you eat chips (we’d prefer you have vegetables, but we’ll tackle that another day), your palate gets "tired" after a while, and you don’t want any more.

But if you get distracted -- by Amy Winehouse’s latest scuffle, by your friend’s e-mail (with pictures!) on what went on after you left the party, or by a killer round of Internet Scrabble -- this appetite-control mechanism vanishes faster than those kettle-cooked chips did.

And that’s if you’re just checking e-mail or cruising around the Web. Video games are even worse. In a study where researchers set up women with some snack cakes, they found that the women who munched while playing a video game downed more than those who ate without distraction, AND the gamers wanted to eat pretty much anything else within reach . . . even after the study part ended (sound familiar?).

If, for some reason, you can’t separate your meals from your mouse (and can afford a new keyboard every few months to replace the crumb-jammed one), try this: Leave the empty bag next to the monitor.

Seeing evidence of your feast may help you eat less next time. And remember that extra calories at your computer mean you’ll need a longer walk to burn them off. Try to stick to savoring each chip separately; you’re more likely to curb your intake.

[jezzie]

Lose Pounds with Pen and Ink

Bet you never knew that a pen could be your best weight loss tool.

It's true. In one of the largest and longest weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, the more food records that dieters kept, the more weight they lost.

Scribble for Success

Simply jotting down what you eat seems like an easy price to pay for fewer pounds. The people in the study also followed the DASH diet, attended weekly group sessions, and exercised for at least 30 minutes a day.

After 6 months, the people who had also kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who did not keep track -- probably because the food journals encouraged people to reflect on what -- and how much -- they'd eaten.

RealAge Benefit: Maintaining a constant desirable weight can make your RealAge 6 years younger.

[jezzie]

Eat Better, Breathe Better, Live Better

Q: It’s easier for me to eat the same thing every morning for breakfast. Am I setting myself up for boredom, and will it make me gain weight?
-- Frank, Moselem Springs, PA

A: Quite the opposite. People who eat the same thing for at least one meal a day lose more weight than those who have more variety. Having lots of choices can make you approach food like you’re in a never-ending speed-eating contest.

Think of how tempting a buffet is, even when you’re not that hungry; but decrease your food choices, and it’s a good bet you’ll automatically decrease your appetite -- and waist size.

Q. I have a nose problem that somewhat affects my breathing. My right nostril is about 90% closed. If I push on the right side of my nose, I can breathe just fine, but not so if I push on the left side. My wife says it's funny. But I want to know if this can be fixed.
-- Alex, New York, NY

A. Sounds like you have a deviated septum, meaning that the piece of cartilage that separates the two sides of your nose on the inside is a little bit bent, leaving your right nostril smaller and harder to breathe through.

If it’s affecting your quality of life, an ENT (an ear, nose, and throat specialist) can reshape the cartilage so that you can breathe better. But this, like everything, has its risks.

That cartilage is the structural support of your nose, much like those lally columns in your basement that are holding up your house. So you have to be very careful when you weaken that structure: You don