How To Slow Down The Speed of Aging
November 17, 2008
Here’s my 74th Canyon Ranch Health Tip:
at your next physical, ask for a CRP test.
This stands for
C-reactive protein.
A CRP test measures the degree of INVISIBLE inflammation in your body, long before inflammation shows up on the more traditional tests that screen for things like cholesterol.
In bodily terms, think of inflammation as an insidious, smoldering fire that can secretly build up and run amok in your body, causing or worsening the start of most age-related diseases like heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. Let’s not forget arthritis, which begins with inflammation in the body, mainly the joints. Inflammation is also a culprit in autoimmune diseases like allergies and digestive disorders.
Any doctor will say that these diseases age us.
What they don’t usually tell us is that we can have control whether we get these diseases and therefore, how quickly we age. Our key to aging slower is to control our inflammation and therefore keep our immune system in balance.
Smart new science has shown that all age related diseases start with an overactive immune system.
So if you keep your immune system in balance you can age more slowly and avoid cancer, heart attack, diabetes and Alzheimer’s because studies have linked these age-related diseases with an overactive immune system.
You cannot die of cancer if it cannot make it past your immune system. You will not have a heart attack if the plague does not build up on your arterial walls. Arthritis will not cripple you if your immune system does not directly assault your joints.
Yes, genetics and family history play a small role but your lifestyle is much more predictive of aging better so the good news is that HOW QUICKLY WE AGE IS LARGELY WITHIN OUR CONTROL!
Maybe you are content with the speed of your aging. I don’t know, maybe you wake up feeling younger as you get older(!!) but if you are like me and would like to put the brakes on (or even reverse) the aging process there are things you can do to stay younger for longer.
One thing is to floss. Plague that builds up in your mouth can travel directly into you gut and contribute to inflammation which is directly correlated with plaque (get it? Tooth plaque/heart plaque?)build up in the arteries. People that have heart attacks more often than not have never flossed!
Another tool is exercise. Have you broken a sweat in the last 2 days? This helps keep your immune system in balance in a way that keeps you feeling young.
But the biggest key on your anti-aging keychain is diet and nutrition. Have you ever heard of NCR?
NCR stands for Nutrient-To-Calorie Ratio and refers to making sure that food is as high in nutrients and as low in calories as possible so that you get food that is as chock full of usuable energy with the least amount of calories as possible. So a McDonald’s Milkshake would have low NCR because it is high in calories and low in nutritional value, same with most candy and junk food.
Some examples of eating high NCR foods are eating a piece of whole fruit instead of drinking fruit-flavored beverages, eating green vegetables instead of potatoes, and snacking on nuts instead of chips.
But the grand daddy of all NCRs is (you knew I was getting to this) Acai juice. Two swallows of this fruit juice (which actually tastes good) has the antioxidant equivalent of 13-14 servings of fruits and veggies, plus heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and esterified fats as well as plant steryls. Plus it only has 30 calories per ounce. Talk about triple-coupons!
Now, fruits and vegetables are wonderful but I don’t think I could eat 14 servings in one day and it’s impossible to get that nutritive value in that small of a serving. This means the Acai juice NCR is off the charts as far as bang for your anti-aging buck.
That is why Oprah featured it on her show as the number one new superfood and why I felt a big improvement in my energy level and exercise performance and why I keep beating the Brazilian Rain Forest Drum of MonaVie.
There is tremendous value (and it will be improvements that you will actually be able to feel in your body in a week or two)in adding these small changes to help you slow down or even halt the speed of your own body’s aging process and
to decrease your chances of ever having to deal with the C–word.
The Gap Between Where You Are & Where You Want To Be
November 14, 2008
People (and by people I mean all women) people have a magic number. It’s that number on the scale that is just on the OTHER side of the gulf (on the count of three, let’s all shout out our magic number,1-2-3!) You know the gulf. It’s the 5,10 or 50 (fill in the number) pound gulf between where you are and where you want to be.
Most people(and by most people I mean most women) the gulf is like the difference between a passing grade and an “F”, between Harvard and The Belmont County Branch Of Ohio U, between third base and all the way, between being nominated and actually winning.
And most always, the gulf is wider than it needs to be, with the other side being more beyond reach than it needs to be. The other side is often unrealistic (thank you Uma and Anjelina) and I’ve also noticed that the magic number is usually a few “el bees”(get it? Ell bees-lbs)below one’s “set point.”
Set point is where your body likes to be, weight-wise. It’s the poundage that your body gravitates towards even when Thanksgiving dinner is served on manhole covers disguised as plates or an evening alone with an open sleeve of Oreo cookies. It is your stasis. Your set point is often where you have to battle to go below. You often discover the definition of the word “plateau”when you try to challenge your set point. You could be clipping along on a diet or exercise routine, steadily losing one or two el bees a week. Then, screeeech!!!! You get within a biceps reach of your goal weight and you stop losing. You practically have to switch to only celery sticks and run marathon type mileage to go below your set point. (Actually I’ve seen women running marathon type distances and still be stuck at their set point).
What’s a girl to do? Two things. Number one is to think hard about your magic number and your set point and the gulf between the two and see if you can somehow, some way
Reconcile the two. (I can hear the deceptively quiet, yet Nazi-like voice in some of your heads, refusing to let go of say, 116 or is it 122? Or maybe 129?)
Can you consider the possibility of inventing a new magic number? Would it be ridiculous to have the old set point be the new black? The new magic number?
On a side note, do you know the feeling that makes you think that your stomach shrunk after a few days of the flu or eating less? Well, that’s not really your stomach shrinking. The nerves that detect fullness actually recalibrate to detect fullness with less food so you FEEL full with less food. Same size stomach. Different sensation.
So if your gut can do THAT without you having to think it to make it happen, then surely you can do the same type of mental recalibration with your scales. Can you decide to detect less criticism with a higher number?
The next question is what happens when you mentally recalibrate?
You stop fighting something immutable. Fighting to get to a magic number (or worse, simply feeling self-loathing at the thought of not weighing your magic weight) is like fighting high tide. At a certain point (this is where the word “wisdom” comes in) you (hopefully) realize that it’s smarter to turn on your back and float or maybe dog-paddle. I’m not recommending sinking, mind you. Or drowning. Just going with the flow. Just facing what is and working with it rather than against it.
Geriathletes like me usually like to try the never-before-attempted. All my life I’ve taken chances and attempted the, maybe not impossible, but more like the highly unlikely. I used to drive on an Empty tank, I used the men’s room if my bladder was full enough and the coast was clear enough and I drank the milk without checking the expiration date, not that a past due date would’ve stopped me from taking a swig. But at a certain Nora Ephron phase of my life, wisdom started whispering to me (in my mother’s tone of voice) saying things like “maybe you should gas up”, “pee before you get in the car”, “have a glass of water instead.”
Wisdom.
Think about it. Hoping to get to a magic number that was imprinted in your brain long before pregnancy, childbirth, menopause and supersize is like the kind of praying you do after you’ve spun the roulette wheel.
Which brings me to my last point which is you need to stop hoping and
Start.
Just start.
If you have a GPS system in your car you know that in order to get anywhere, you have to program in your final destination. Any fitness regime worth it’s weight in dumbbells needs to do the same. Pick a long-term goal (closer to your new magic number,hey! Look! It’s your old set point!) and a long-term date, break it down into weekly goals then daily goals, the minutes.
And just get STARTED on your way.
Never give up.
Never give up does not mean fighting to maintain a weight that your metabolism refuses to maintain. Never give up refers to dedication and commitment over the long haul. One week of workouts becomes two. Then a month goes by. You feel better. Your jeans fit better.And so on.
You get the picture.
So start recalibrating your brain about your weight by starting to notice how you feel about where you are now and where you WANT to be.
Mentally try to let go, without letting yourself go. And don’t just talk the talk, Jog the jog.
More Reasons To Get Your Calcium & Vitamin D
November 11, 2008
There was an interesting article in the New York Times last week about problems with a type of hip replacement called hip resurfacing which was just approved by the FDA a few years ago. . Hip resurfacing (basically a total hip replacement designed to preserve more bone by cutting the bone up higher on the neck of the femur rather than below the ball- you don’t really wanna know, it’s basically carpentry) but hip resurfacing has become more common and is sometimes recommended for younger, more active hip replacement patients.
But research has recently shown that there is a high rate of failure with the procedure when it’s done on middle aged women. Guess what that means? The integrity of women’s bones diminishes as we approach and pass through menopause so their hips fracture or the cup slips due to lack of bone integrity.
Also my friend Karen who is battling breast cancer was recently getting a bone density screening for her upcoming round of radiation.
She thought for sure that at age 47 and having been an excellent, life-long “weight-bearer”-meaning that she has always exercised by running- this is a major factor on bones remaining strong. Anyone who has ever had a cast on their leg for months can see how a limb shrivels if it does not bear weight.
Anyway, she was shocked to learn that she has borderline osteoporotis which is a thinning of the bone where the skeleton becomes less dense and is prone towards all kinds of problems like breakage, arthritis and pain. Part of this is from her chemo regime but perhaps a calcium supplement could’ve avoided this extreme depletion of bone strength.
A further complication that women face is that females can only maintain or lose bone density as we age. That means you can never get it back.
Of course, there are a few Osteoporosis drugs that can build back some bone like Fosamax (Sally Field advertises for it) but they come with a long list of negative side effects, including pain, diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, hypertension etc. And a recent study has found that Fosamax - may actually be responsible for causing femur fractures. The warning label is enough to scare the most eager pill-popper.
What should we do? There are a few natural things we can incorporate into our lifestyle. We should be getting daily weight-bearing exercise. Also aim to get a half-hour of daily sunshine on our forearms for the Vitamin D, especially during the winter months. I like this assignment. It sounds like something that I could accomplish pleasurably if I sat down near the kitchen window with my lunch and the newspaper.
When I asked my doctor friend, Rosemarie,
what else she recommends, she said this:
“All women over the age of thirty, particularly those who have had children (because developing skeletons rob your skeleton of calcium stores) should be on calcium daily!!!!”
Those four exclamations points are hers.
I know I said it last week, but have your Vitamin D level checked next time you get your physical.
For good measure, I take Viactiv, which is a chocolate chew that you can get at any drugstore.
Take two chews every day to get a 1000 milligrams but take them at least four hours apart since more than 500 milligrams cannot be absorbed at once. Or get the calcium fortified OJ, since Vitamin C aides in the absorption of calcium.
Little lifestyle changes you make today can have a serious impact on how you hold up as senior citizens so start strengthening those bones today so they keep you upright for the duration.
End of Daylight Savings Time Means More VitaminD
November 7, 2008
I think I have early onset seasonal affective disorder.
We changed our clocks back from Daylight Savings Time last week and it’s just after four o’clock and it’s getting dark outside.
The only time I’ve ever appreciated this transition to shorter days was when my kids were babies.
I was the Queen of Beddie-Bye. Back then, I actually looked forward to the early arrival of evening. I remember sometimes having my three babes tucked into bed for the night by 5:10pm, the world record for overwhelmed moms.
But things change.
Now that they are teens, my “babies” get a second wind at about 9:45pm and let’s just say I really don’t need an extra hour of darkness anymore.
Speaking of darkness, we now have a very real health related darkness problem. I first heard of this issue at, where else, but brilliant doctors on staff at
Canyon Ranch.
Since the advent of sunscreen usage many people (and Canyon Ranch estimates the number of people to be nearly 70%of Americans!) have developed a Vitamin D deficiency.
And it gets worse.
I hate to break this to you
but there is a conclusive, growing body of evidence about the potential link between lack of Vitamin D and risk for certain cancers and diseases.
Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least seventeen varieties of cancer (!!)as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more!
This is especially a concern for people with black skin or people over the age of seventy, neither of which convert vitamin D effectively.
The Canadian Cancer Society has gone so far as to issue a recommendation that Canadians consider adding a vitamin D supplement when Daylight Savings Time ends (and it is darker for a greater portion of the day).
You get your vitamin D from one of three sources: sunlight, fortified dietary foods, especially dairy products, some cereals and oily fish like salmon.
The radiation that converts vitamin D in the skin is the same wavelength that causes sunburn, so those of you who are religious about application of sunscreen (even if it’s just 15 SPF!) can drastically impair vitamin D production. It just ain’t fair!
If you live in the northern latitudes, there is not enough radiation to convert vitamin D into a usable nutrient, especially during the winter.
What to do?
Check with your doctor first,
but if you typically avoid sunlight exposure, research indicates a necessity to supplement with at least 5,000 units (IU) of vitamin D daily. The US government recommends only 200 IU a day! It is my humble opinion that this is an outdated guideline that was based on Vtiamin D not being a water-soluable vitamin that could possibly build up in the body to toxic levels. This was prior to the sunscreen era. Tell me now that federal nutritional guidelines aren’t in need of an overhaul.
To give you an idea of how much 5000 IUs of vitamin D is, it is equal to 50 glasses of milk. With a multivitamin, that’s more than 10 tablets.
The skin produces approximately 20,000 IUs of vitamin D from twenty to thirty minutes of summer sun exposure on your forearms and face—100 times more than the US government’s recommendation of 200 IU per day!
What to do? Get your vitamin D level checked at your next physical.
It’s a $20 to $30 test. Just don’t load up on vitamin D because it still can be toxic at mega doses if you are not deficient.
Me?
I’m moving to Brazil.
If it weren’t enough incentive that I’ve just become obsessed with getting everyone I know who has an ache or pain (or seasonal affective disorder) to try the Brazilian Acai berry juice, I do think I could benefit from the sunlight.
And now that I have conclusive medical science to back me up, does anyone know if the Brazilian Rain Forest has good beaches?
What Exercise and Voting and Sex Have In Common
November 5, 2008
• It’s good for you.
• It makes you feel like you are doing something worthwhile.
• You might not want to take the time to do it but you always feel better after you do it
• Some people don’t get excited about it at all. Others wish they could do it several times in one day.
• Some people think they’ll never recover if they don’t get exactly what they wanted out of it. But they do.
• The more you do it the more you want to do it. The less you do it the less you want to do it. Some rare people have never done it in their entire lives. And don’t want to either.
• Sometimes you do it for yourself. Sometimes you do it for your loved ones. Sometimes you do it because you think it will bring you change.
• You can do it alone or with many people.
• It’s free.
• You can do it in any town but usually you do it in your hometown.
• You can bring your dog with you but he usually has to wait outside until you’re done.
• Sometimes it makes you feel really great. Occasionally it can make you ecstatic. Mostly it’s just routine.
• Most people prefer to do it in private but some like an audience.
• If you do it right, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
• If you are lucky it gets you the results that you’ve dreamed of.
No Time To Exercise? Try Daylight Savings Time!
November 2, 2008
I like to think of DST changes, both in the spring and in the fall, as a time to switch up your workout, much in the same way that many people switch their smoke alarm batteries.
The “Fall Back” is an especially opportune time to add or change a morning exercise plan because you will surely wake up, maybe like me, thinking “Wow, I’m not late” all of this week. It’s the only time of year I wake up BEFORE my alarm and feel refreshed and unruffled,everyone’s lunch’s get packed ,no one misses the bus for sure and I may even get to sit down for breakfast
At our gym, I encourage my 6am class takers to bring a friend to the early classes this week because getting in the car to go work out (when it is light) is so much easier than in the dark.
Consider adding a morning walk or even some floor calisthenics. Your dog will love this part.
Commit for one week and see if you can use the jump start of the end of DST to make it easier.
If exercise were a pill, we’d all be addicted. It’d be the oxycontin for everything. We’d wreck our lives to get a refill. Insurance would not cover it because we’d put them out of business by fixing most age-related illnesses that keep those companies rolling in the money.
Think about it!
Also, exercise is an especially effective medicine to give yourself in the morning. You will have more energy,be more awake,productive and your day will go better.
Did I mention that exercise is FREE???
So,If anyone in your family asks you what you are doing on the living room floor doing crunches, as they step over you on their way to the coffee pot, tell them you are trying to become an addict.
Maybe you can get them hooked,too
If You Can See It, You Will Eat It
October 31, 2008
Are you familiar with Tough Love for troubled teens? Well, think of this email as Tough Love For Halloween.
Here is Wikepedia’s definition of Tough Love- “an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run.”
Also, to be defined as tough love, there must also be some genuine feelings of affection behind the stern words.
Ahem, are you sitting down? We need to talk.
I am walloping your inbox this week with tough love emails (meanmails you might call them)
out of concern that unless I demand it, you will not get that candy out of your cupboards, off your desk, out of your candy dishes and car and purse and out of sight.
Do NOT let people bring it to your office! If you see them hauling it in, demand that they put it on their OWN hips!
I bet if , on Monday afternoon, you dumped the whole candy bowl in the lunchroom garbage can everyone would actually THANK you for taking the initiative.
If you do not GET IT GONE it will get itself gone…into your mouth and onto the part of body you are resting on right now.
Now, not everyone becomes a skid in a candy store when faced with their favorite Mr Goodbar, although I don’t really trust people who tell me they don’t like candy (I lump them into my distrust category of people that don’t like dogs) but most people (okay, women) I know do what I did today.
I preached all week about how you all should buy candy that you don’t like or better yet, are allergic to and what did I do when I got to Costco? I bought (or someone who looked just like me, it wasn’t really me) THREE jumbo super duper size combo bags of…
PEANUT M&Ms! SNICKERS! and MINI M&M’s!
What happened?!!?
I’ll tell you what happened. It’s called compartmentalization. Think Bill Clinton.
In your conscious mind you think one thing and you get determined and psyched and you make a SMART plan and then. And then. And then your shadow mind sneaks up on you and
YOU BUY THE CANDY YOU LOVE.
We all know how this story ends.
So.
I need you to wait until November 1st (that’s tomorrow).Then first thing in the morning you have to clear it ALL out. Let your kids keep only what they promise on their life not to let you have, then ask them to hide it from you or if they are too little to keep it themselves, use
TOUGH LOVE on them.
I apologize for my stern tone but,
Just like with alcohol, no one wakes up the next morning and says “Honey! I wish I’d drunk MORE.” The same theory applies here. No one in your family, and especially not you, will wake up Sunday morning and say, “Damn, I should’ve had ANOTHER snickers!”
Trust me. I know these are hard words to hear on the evening of literally the sweetest day of the year, but if you can get it out of sight, it really will be out of mind.
But if you can see it, you will eat it.
Acai (Ah-sah-EE)Said The Blind Man
October 31, 2008
Many of you have expressed what I’d describe as guarded curiosity about my last blog post on the newly researched Acai (ah-sah-EE) berry. But when Oprah gets on the bandwagon, we all have to stop and take notice. Oprah’s Dr. Perricone listed Acai as NUMBER ONE of his top 10 Superfoods.
I agree though. Suspicion is a healthy thing.
Anytime I get emails trying to convince me to try the lastest ThighMaster or the almighty Bowflex, I usually do one of two things. I either allow my eyes to glaze over and wonder what’s in the fridge
OR I hit the delete button.
But occasionally something revolutionary comes along that gets me all twittery inside. Spinning was one. The foam roller was another. Wonder Bras and Hanky Pankies come to mind. And don’t forget Starbuck’s Venti Skim Cappucino as another. The hoax-busters try to find the hoke in the hoax, to no avail.
Even still, I would have normally ignored these “Miracle Berry” promos. That is IF I hadn’t just arrived back home from a weekend at Canyon Ranch where their up-to-the-minute staff of physicians were extolling the virtues of this acai berry and other purple skinned fruits.
The acai berry, as well as other highly ranked ORAC foods are related to reduced risk of arthritis, muscle irritation, pain, and the aging of our skin.
Studies are being done around the world to find out the effects of Acai juice on diseases like cancer, heart attacks and cardiovascular issues.
These Canyon Ranch staff physicians are the very same doctors that I heard six long years ago quoting new research on the dangers of heating and freezing substances in plastic. Of course that took 5 more years until I actually heard what they were saying. I remember smirking when they said that I should only freeze or nuke food in GLASS! How inconvenient!
I was unwilling to throw out my Tupperware.
Fast forward to present day.
It took Cheryl Crow’s breast cancer assertions that plastic water bottles had leached toxins into her drinking water to get us to pay attention. I guess People Magazine carries more clout than cutting edge doctors with the American public. I feel pathetic!
Then the following year, those same doctors were recommending a test for CRP (C-reactive protein), which is a test that detects inflammation in the body and can be a marker to indicate heart disease before it shows up on standard cholesterol tests.
Back then, my doctor at home had never even heard of a CRP test, let alone administered it. Nowadays, all doctors worth their stethoscope will order this test as a general rule of thumb during physicals on baby boomers.
So I finally get it. Maybe it’s wisdom. The Canyon Ranch staff calls it the Butterfly Effect-which means that little lifestyle changes we make today can have a huge effect on our health in years to come.
I wish Cheryl Crow was with my Canyon Ranch group six years ago.
But now, instead of waiting for the FDA to post a warning or for People Magazine to feature some celebrity cancer survivor five years from now, I am trying to listen and follow their guidance more promptly.
Acai juice is expensive to make. But production of this native Amazonian berry has created many jobs for the people of Brazil, as there are several pulping and freezing factories located in the Amazon. The harvesting of the Acai berry is still done by hand to protect the rain forest. Acai berries need to be processed within 24 hours to avoid spoilage. A lot of workers will pick the berries fast in an effort to get them to the factory more quickly.
The reason I am putting my endorsement behind MonaVie is that they had the business acumen to patent their freeze-dry method for berry preservation so that the antioxidant benefits remain the same as freshly picked berries. No other company can use this preferred method of harvesting so other products have lesser nutritional benefits.
You will see other juices in stores. The cheaper ones are very diluted. The pricier ones in stores use a makeshift flash drying process that sacrifices nutrient content.
MonaVie will also only sell through distributors-no stores carry MonaVie and EBay type auctions are prohibited. That’s why I am getting on board.
And you can too. by emailing me right now.
Or you can wait to read about it in five years in People Magazine.
The New Science of Staying Younger For Longer
October 28, 2008
If you are not sick of hearing me mention my recent stay at Canyon Ranch, stick around, I’m not done yet. Canyon Ranch is devoted to something they call UltraPrevention. They believe that much of the process of aging can be controlled by lifestyle, meaning that if you are willing to exercise and make careful selections about what you eat and drink (and what you don’t eat and don’t drink) that you can actually stay younger for longer. Pick me! Pick me!
Upon returning from Canyon Ranch, there’s usually a few memorable fitness or health tidbits that stick with me.
This year it was their simplified explanation of antioxidants and their evil counterparts, free radicals and how looking and feeling older (not to mention getting age-related diseases) are related to this battle.
Here’s my dummified explanation:
Free radicals form in our bodies as we process food and during other normal bodily functions. They also form from exposure to the sun, pollutants we breathe, eating processed foods, smoking, drinking too much, etc. They are also produced by stress.
Athletes, sadly, also can create free radicals through the additional stress they put on their bodies with long or intense bouts of exercise. This is known as oxidative stress. Just like a car that gets rusty from exposure to oxygen, some of us can get “rust”(arthritis) in our joints from overuse during exercise.
(I believe an excess of free radicals contributed to the early onset of arthritis in my hips from my decades of exercise and my body’s inability to get rid of free radicals.)
Free radicals sometimes weld molecules to each other – sort of like putting handcuffs on them - so they don’t function the way they are supposed to.
When free radicals weld molecules of the skin protein collagen together, the skin looses its elasticity and suppleness and becomes dry and wrinkled.
This explains where our wrinkles come from and why some people get more wrinkles, earlier than others.
This type of damage accelerates the aging process as tissues lose their function due to the steadily increasing number of free radical cells.
And it’s not just wrinkles that we get from too many free radicals in our system. It’s more serious diseases like cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. These illnesses all have a free radical component to their mechanism of development.
Lots of recent research has been devoted to fighting free radicals and the most famous free radical fighters of all, antioxidants, are my next point.
Simply put, antioxidants turn a free radical into a non-harmful cell. Antioxidants give the free radical the extra electron that it needs to balance it out.
Antioxidants are any substances that prevent or slow the oxidation process. Remember, free radicals cause oxidation - and antioxidants prevent oxidation. Antioxidants work by donating an electron to a free radical so it becomes a stable oxygen molecule.
Has your brain caught up with me yet? I know it’s complicated but stay with me.
Bottom line: Antioxidants stabilize free radicals so you are less likely to get diseases and you won’t age as fast.
There is a standard method of measuring antioxidant capacities of different foods. This capacity is called OXYGEN RADICAL ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY, otherwise known as ORAC (check out orac.org for more detailed food listings). Foods that have a high ORAC rating are things like purple fruits, fruits rich in Vitamin C, red wine and cruciferous veggies.
.
The higher the ORAC number - the stronger the antioxidant properties of that food.
The USDA recommends we consume 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units daily. Probably 80% of the population is eating less than 1,000 ORAC units a day. The USDA recommends “5-a-day” fruit and vegetable servings. This consumption is an ORAC score of about 1,750 units.
Fruits and vegetables tend to have the highest ORAC values. Per 100 grams - Apples are rated a 218, Bananas a 221, blueberries 2,400.
But what fruit is the Tiger Woods of ORAC values? A newly discovered berry found in the Amazon rainforest called the Acai berry.
Acai has a 1027 ORAC score. More impressive, freeze dried Acai actually has an ORAC value of over 50,000 per 100 grams.
Why is the Acai berry such a super star antioxidant?
Fruits like the Acai berry that are exposed to strong sun face an extreme amount of ultra violet light stress. This UV light triggers free radicals to form in the fruit. Fruits, such as the Acai berry, develop high levels of antioxidant properties so they can halt the free radicals.
And this story gets better- studies have shown that the antioxidant properties are maintained even after they are eaten by humans.
One problem though is that the Acai berry goes rancid very quickly, within 24 hours after it is harvested so it must be freeze-dried there in Brazil. That’s why you will never see fresh Acai berries in our supermarkets.
Very few companies are able to maintain the ORAC values from the Amazon to your doorstep.
Anyway, I found all this out at the Ranch and came home wondering how to find myself a supply of Acai juice since I am living not so close to the Amazon rain forest.
Funnily enough my sister called the next day and described this new juice she’d been drinking that lowered her cholestoral by 30 points and took away some serious aches and pains that had plagued her for years. In two weeks!
Normally I would harangue her for jumping on this obvious juice hoax. But that was before hearing all that I heard at Canyon Ranch about the Acai berry and it’s through-the-roof antioxidant properties.
She shipped me a bottle the next day and sure enough, within one week, my knees feel less achy and my fingers, which had started to develop some stiffness, feel back to normal.
My theory is that the antioxidant capacity is so great that it immediately reduces inflammation, so you actually feel better right away.
I also need to mention that there is some strong research about Acai juice combating cancer!
A recent Acai research study found that Acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86% of leukemia cells tested in a test tube. To come to this conclusion, researchers prepared six different extracts from Acai fruit pulp, then prepared each extract at seven levels of concentration. Depending on the extract and its level of concentration, anywhere from about 56% to 86% of the leukemia cells died after 24 hours of exposure to the extract. (Del Pozo-Insfran D, Percival SS, Talcott ST. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Feb 22;54(4):1222-9.)
No wonder Oprah featured this berry on her show a few months back!
The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: Since these results occurred in a laboratory setting more research needs to be done to determine whether they can be replicated in humans. In the meantime, know that Acai research indicates that this deep purple berry offers a rich source of antioxidants. So taking an Acai extract may help reverse the effects of free radicals in your body.
MonaVie is the one company I’ve found that has mastered the shipping of high quality Acai juice. It’s not cheap, $40 per bottle but you only need 3 ounces a day so one bottle lasts over two weeks.
Are you ready to start staying younger for longer? I am! Plus anything that makes my body feel better is immediately worth it.
MonaVie is only available through the mail so I am signing up now to distribute it. I’m convinced people will feel their aches and pains vanish!
Email me if you are interested in having an acai tasting party or if you’d like to try a bottle!
Viola’s Spa Weekend
October 28, 2008
Canyon Ranch, Lenox,Mass. October 16,2008
Our Spa Group-Viola was getting a massage
"Hurry up Viola! You're missing the gourmst dinner!"
Viola still finds it hard to relax
Hydrating the skin-so important to looking good.
I wish she's rub my assNow, that's better.Goodbye outside world!Hot Tub!
She just can't seem to relax
Happy Hour with Viola
