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Foods for Living Longer and Better

Eat Your Way To Longevity

By Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com

About.com Health’s Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

See More About:

• nutrition and longevity
• healthy eating tips
• anti-aging
• longevity foods

These food and drink options will help your body fight off the damage caused by aging. Just work them into your daily and weekly meal plans and you’ll be getting extra vitamins, antioxidants and other substances that will help your body fight age-related illnesses. Start today!

1. Avocados

Alex Cao / Getty Images

Avocados lead my list of anti-aging foods because that are just so delicious. Of course, avocados are loaded with healthy fats to help improve your cholesterol, but the main reason to eat avocados is because they taste so good.

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2. Walnuts

John Foxx / Getty Images

I know I need to eat more omega-3s and that fish are a great source, but I have to admit that possible mercury contamination of fish has got me a bit scared off. That’s where walnuts come in. Turns out that walnuts are a great (and mercury-free) source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. Eat a handful or two a day for all your omega-3 needs.

3. Green Vegetables

Photo: Digital Vision / Getty Images

I know, it’s pretty boring to talk about the need to eat more vegetables — but here’s the thing, we all really need to do it. In fact, if the country could get 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day, we’d see a huge decrease in heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and more. So find some way to eat one more veggie or fruit this week, then add another next week until you get to 9 servings. Focus on leafy or deeply colored vegetables for the most benefit.

4. Water

Martin Ruegner / Getty Images

Water is good for you. This seems pretty basic. There is some disagreement in the medical world whether drinking TONS of water is really a good idea, but while they sort that out stay focused on water. Your goal should be to make water your primary drink. This way, you’ll be drinking a no calorie, no chemical drink all day long instead of the many, many high-calorie, high chemical alternatives.

5. Berries

Trinette Reed / Getty Images

Berries are packed full of antioxidants and other chemicals that your body can use to make repairs and prevent some of the damage caused by aging. Best of all, berries taste really, really good. Be sure to eat your berries without any sauces or sugars. Just enjoy them plain for their goodness.

6. Green Tea

Akira Kaede / Getty Images

Green tea has been a longevity supplement in Asia for thousands of years. It is a great thing to work into your daily life. Green tea contains high concentrations of just the chemicals your body needs. Green tea is also inexpensive, delicious and gives a mild (and gentle) energy boost from its caffeine.

7. Red Wine

Photodisc / Getty Images

Red wine is good for you — it contains a substance called “resveratrol” that help your body fight off age-related illnesses. At the end of your day have a glass or two to relax and unwind. You’ll get the benefits of a delicious drink along with the anti-aging properties of resveratrol.

8. Beans

George Doyle / Getty Images

Beans are a great source of healthy protein and antioxidants. Really, beans are a wonder food. Some researchers (like T. Colin Powell) believe that animal protein may cause many of the illnesses we face as we age. Switching to a (healthy) vegetarian diet certainly will help improve the health of your heart and arteries. Beans are a necessary part of any healthy vegetarian diet. If you don’t want to go all the way to vegetarianism, then just start by substituting a few meals a week with bean-based entrees.

9. Melons

Digital Vision / Getty Images

When I think of fruit, I don’t always think of melons. That’s a shame because melons have some of the best nutritional profiles of all the fruits. They are pulpy (so they fill you up) and contain lots of vitamins for your body. Work melons into your daily/weekly diet and you’ll be reaping health benefits as you enjoy them.

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Recession within year, say experts

pa.press.net

August 18 2008

Recession within year, say experts

Britain’s economy will enter a recession within the coming year, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has predicted.

In its latest quarterly economic forecast, the BCC said Britain was heading into a “technical” recession of two or more quarters of declining output over the next six or nine months. But a major recession similar to the downturn seen in the early 1990s was unlikely, the organisation said.

However, the BCC forecast that unemployment will climb by up to 300,000 over the next two to three years to nearly two million. It could even top the two million mark if conditions deteriorate.

David Kern, the BCC’s economic adviser, said: “Our quarterly economic forecast highlights a significant worsening in UK economic prospects. There is now a distinct possibility of technical recession. The level of UK unemployment is likely to increase to nearly 300,000 over the next few years, reaching almost two million. An increase above two million cannot be ruled out.”

The main drivers of the UK slowdown will be a “very sharp” deceleration in consumer spending growth as households tighten their belts amid soaring bills and falling house prices, the BCC said. Another contributory factor will be much lower growth in UK investment spending thanks to rock-bottom business confidence.

Last week Bank of England Governor Mervyn King also warned that the UK economy could suffer two quarters of negative growth as it went through a “difficult and painful adjustment”. Inflation hit a record 4.4% in July, and Mr King warned it could spend the rest of this year around the 5% mark before it falls away through 2009.

Mr Kern said the UK urgently needed an interest rate cut to stimulate the economy. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held rates at 5% in July, the third month in a row they were left unchanged.

“Our view is that the threats to growth are more serious and more immediate than the risks of higher inflation,” Mr Kern said. “The UK economy urgently needs an interest rate cut to counter threats of recession.”

BCC director general, David Frost added: “Whilst a marked slowdown in activity is likely over the next 18 months, even if interest rates are cut when inflation peaks, the correct policy decisions are still needed to ward off the threats of a serious and prolonged recession. The longer the MPC waits before cutting rates, the bigger the danger that the economic situation would deteriorate.”

The BCC, which represents Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses, said it was predicting GDP growth to fall to 1.3% this year and 1.1% in 2009. The economy grew 3% during 2007. Its May survey forecast a less abrupt slowdown, with growth of 1.7% in 2008, and to 1.6% in 2009.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2008, All Rights Reserved.

Roll into the recession in style - luxury cars go under the hammer

Potential buyers and onlookers at Saturday’s car liquidation sale at Orwell Motors on the Ballymount Road in Dublin.Photograph: Kenneth O’Halloran
In a sign of the times, Porsches and BMWs are sold off as a high-end car dealer goes under, writes Rosita Boland

ON SATURDAY in the packed forecourt of Orwell Motors in Walkinstown, Dublin, most members of the public were eagerly examining the Mercedes, BMWs and Saabs that were due to sold in a receivership car auction.

However, Dubliner Sandra McQueen was staring mesmerized at the large Gucci handbag hanging off the arm of a potential female buyer. “Some of the handbags here are worth more than what I can afford to pay for a car,” she confessed.

Ms McQueen had come to the auction looking for a bargain. Unlike most of the others there, her budget of €3,000 was modest, and she was after one of the very few lots of 00- and 01-registered VWs and Peugeots.

Most people were focusing exclusively on the prestige cars: the 05 BMW 630 Sport, the 06 Lexus IS220, the 06 Mercedes E200 and others.

There were a total of 55 lots, most of them high-end cars. Orwell Motors, a long-established Dublin car dealership specialising in expensive cars, went out of business at the end of last month.
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) appointed Paul McCann, of accountancy firm Grant Thornton as receiver, and it carried out Saturday’s auction. It was a condition of the auction that all payments had to be made in full, either by bank transfer or bankers drafts, so all transactions on the day were in effect cash.

It was easy to spot the professionals. The expressionless car dealers worked in pairs, took notes, and walked around the cars like farmers examining cattle. They opened bonnets and scrutinised engines with detachment. You could almost see the euro signs in their eyes.
The private buyers, on the other hand, were mostly couples simply dreaming of driving posh cars, like Maurice and Mary Quinn, up for the day from Newtownforbes, Co Longford. They were interested in the 06 BMW 320 and the 06 Lexus IS220, “but only if they’re giving them away,” stressed Mr Quinn.
Friends and software professionals Kumar Rubra and Ven Ramachandran. both from India, were not surprised that Orwell Motors had gone out of business. “These guys have been caught out because they were high-end. There’s no money now in the secondhand market with the VRT [vehicle registration tax],” Mr Rubra commented. His friend was there to try to buy a Saab, BMW or a Lexus.

“It’s not going to stop here,” declared Bobby Bolger, from Naas, Co Kildare, who was looking for a Mercedes. “More dealers are going to go bust. Secondhand cars have long been overvalued in this country. Cars will have to come down to more realistic prices.

“We’re in a recession now, and car sales are going the way of property sales,” he added.
The car attracting the most attention was a black 2000 Porsche Boxter 3.2 convertible. Men, in particular, circled it with the frequency of goldfish doing laps, while their female companions stood aside, looking either indulgent or worried.

It was the only car in the auction that one Dublin couple had come to bid on. “We’re only interested in one car. The Porsche, if it’s a good deal,” said the woman firmly. They declined to give their names.
“You can’t use my name, because I work in financial services, and I can’t possibly be seen to be talking about a recession,” explained the man. Isn’t that why we’re here?
The auction started bang on 11am, by which time more than 130 people had registered as potential bidders, with many more present as onlookers. Bidding was consistently brisk, and it took less than three minutes to reach a selling price of €45,000 for the 05 BMW 630 Sport. It took longer than that to sell a 2000 VW Polo, which went for €2,300.
Other sales included €33,000 for an 06 Mercedes E200; €24,000 for the 06 BMW320 DSE; and €22,000 for an 06 Saab 9-3. The Porsche went for €17,500. The man from the financial services was outbid.
© 2008 The Irish Times

The game of boules is truly Provencal, and typifies the easy life in the warm sun with the smell of lavender and the sounds of clanking balls and glasses of pastis and the chatter of friends.  Boules is a general name for the game of Pétanque and its predeceders longue, butaban and roulette, which themselves evolved from mail (pinball) and quilles (skittles).

While pétanque was once a masculine sport, it’s now practiced by all, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. Pétanque is also an everyman’s sport: no uniforms, no special equipment, no expensive supporting teams or mechanics or engineers required. Little kids can get heavy plastic boules at the grocerie store before going on vacation. In the village of St. Paul de Vence, the famous French movie actors Lino Ventura and the late Yves Montand regularly played pétanque in the main square in front of the café, amidst tourists and friends.

The Game

In pétanque, a little wooden ball (the cochonnet) is thrown out as a target, at a distance of 6 to 10 meters. The players, with three boules each and divided into two teams, then take turns throwing their heavy iron boules to land as close as possible to the cochonnet. The boules are polished steel, and each set of three is engraved with a pattern of concentric circles or squares for identification.

A player from one team throws first, and then a player from the second team. After that, a player from the team that does not have the closest boule to the cochonnet throws. When all boules have been thrown, the team with the closest boule gets a point for every one of their boules closer to the cochonnet than the closest of the opposing team.

Comparing distances of closely matched boules is done with everything from long broken sticks or a string to a purpose-built measuring tape. When the round is over the boules are picked up, with a strong magnet on the end of a cord for those to infirm or lazy to bend over, and polished clean of dust for the next round. A throwing line is drawn in the dirt and the cochonnet is thrown out again, often back in the opposite direction, for the next round. The team aquiring thirteen points first wins.

Throwing is always done with careful concentration and great style. One usually leans forward to study the terrain, then squat down slowly, the boule held down at the side with palm and fingers facing aft. Then the boule is launched in a backhand throw to arc up and land close to the cochonnet. The player can point, try to drop the boule as close as possible to the cochonnet, or tirer, knock an opponent’s boule away. When the boule knocks another far away while remaining itself beside the cochonnet, cheering is usually reserved for the next player will probably undo that fine result.

TOP 10 WELSH JOKES…

Jun 17 2007 by Laura Kemp, Wales On Sunday

1) What do call an Englishman holding a bottle of champagne after a Six Nations game?

Waiter.

2) Did you hear about the Valleys girl who wanted to get dirty with her boyfriend?

He took her to a coalmine.

3) What do you call a Welshman with no brain?

Dim.

4) The All Blacks were playing England, and after the half-time whistle blew, they found themselves ahead 50-0, Jonah Lomu getting eight tries. The rest of the team decided to head for the pub instead of playing the second half, leaving Jonah to go out on his own.

“No worries,” Jonah told them, “I’ll join you later and tell you what happened.” After the game Jonah headed for the pub where he told his team mates the final score – 95-3.

“What?!”, they said, “How did you let them get three points?”

Jonah replied apologetically: “I was sent off with 20 minutes to go.”

5) What do you get if you cross the WRU with an OXO cube?

A laughing stock.

6) Dai and Blodwyn were engaged to be married. Dai was sent by his company to London on a two-week sales training course. The course was fine but the evenings were boring and by the second week Dai was fed up with sitting around in his hotel bedroom and went down to the bar for a few drinks where he met a couple of girls of the night, who enticed him into spending his money.

On returning home Dai’s conscience got the better of him and he broke down and confessed to Blodwyn that he had been unfaithful to her twice.

Blodwyn said she was glad Dai had been so honest – she too had to confess that she had been unfaithful twice whilst Dai had been away… once with the Tredegar Male Voice Choir and once with the Ebbw Vale RFC first XV.

7) An English politician was giving a speech in Aberystwyth. He said: “I was born an Englishman. I have been an Englishman all my life, and I will die an Englishman!”

“What’s wrong, boyo?” shouted a voice from the crowd.“Got no ambition, have you?”

What’s the Ospreys and a three pin British electrical plug got in common?

They’re both useless in Europe.

9) Rhys: Doctor, I can’t stop singing the Green, Green Grass of Home.

Doctor: That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome.

Rhys: Is it common?

Doctor: It’s not unusual.

10) Cabbie Rhys Parry was taking an American tourist from Bristol to Cardiff. When they were going over the Severn Bridge, the American told Rhys he had a longer bridge on his ranch in Colorado. When they arrived in Cardiff, Rhys showed him Cardiff Castle and he said his garage in Colorado was twice as big and only took a week to build.

When the tourist spotted the Millennium Stadium, he asked Rhys what it was.

He replied: “I don’t know, mate, it wasn’t there this morning.”