Get Your Life Back in Rhythm

Harvard Scientists Reveal 5 Life Extending Hacks: Your Best Lifestyle for Longevity

Wouldn't you like to know the real secret to a long and healthy life?  Based on the latest longevity study, Harvard researchers found five easy life-extending hacks that could get you to age 93.  In this article, I’ll share the very best lifestyle for longevity.

What Does it Take to Get to Age 90?

The human body is genetically programmed to make it to 90.  As long as we don't screw it up, 90 is within reach for most people.  If you can get a few simple, healthy lifestyle habits down, then the odds are that you will thwart a fatal cancer or heart condition.  Indeed, if you can stave off heart disease and cancer then cruising past 90 should be a breeze.

The Latest Longevity Study

In search of life’s Holy Grail, Harvard researchers recently revealed five simple life-extending health hacks. These five hacks are all you need to know to find your best lifestyle for longevity.

As part of this new study, Harvard researchers painstakingly dissected the medical records of 123,219 people. With an average of 34 years of medical records at their disposal, they were able to deconstruct the five secrets to a life free of heart problems, cancer, or a premature death.

When it comes to beating heart disease, these five health hacks will slash your heart disease risk by 72%!  If a 72% reduction of death from heart disease isn't compelling enough, these five hacks will also drop your cancer risk by 52%!

As you will likely be free of heart disease and cancer, this study shows that for women you will get 14 bonus years of life allowing you to reach 93.  For men, these same five health hacks predict 12 bonus years of life achieving an age of 88.

5 Life-Extending Hacks

Without keeping you in suspense any longer, here are the five longevity hacks to find your best lifestyle for longevity.

1.  Breathe Clean Air

Okay, nothing new here. While this study specifically looked at smoking, countless other studies have linked any form of air pollution to heart disease, cancer, and a shortened life.  The message is simple.  Make clean breathing a must.

In addition to not smoking, you also don't allow anyone to smoke around you.  The same goes for electronic cigarettes.

Besides smoking, air pollution can be a huge problem.  Indeed, studies show that air pollution may rob you of up to 5.5 years of life!  And when it comes to air pollution, indoor air quality is generally much worse than anything you may encounter outside of your home.   For indoor air pollution, studies show that even breathing the stench of smoke on the clothes of smokers puts you at risk.

What can you do?  Besides banning cigarettes in your home, don't go anywhere near where people are smoking.  If air pollution is bad, then don't exercise outside.  For your home, invest in many indoor plants and be sure to also buy a HEPA filter.  These filters are cheap and can be very effective at scrubbing the indoor air of pollutants.

2. Keep Your BMI Between 19 and 25

I'm guessing that if you are like most people, this will be the most challenging longevity hack.  Food manufacturers have scientifically designed their fake foods to get you hooked, steal your money, and make you gain weight.

Not quite sure what your body mass index (BMI) is?  Here is the link to find out. If you are like most people, you are probably in shock as to how high your BMI is.  The natural inclination is to say the BMI system is wrong, bogus, or a terrible measure of health.

Yes, there are limitations.  No system is perfect.  For example, it doesn't account for excessive muscle mass.  Thus, if you are faithfully doing hardcore strength training, your BMI measurement won't be accurate.

Despite the limitations, BMI is a proven predictor of longevity within a population of people.  And when it comes to living a long life, studies show that the BMI sweet spot seems to be 20 to 25.

Even if you have battled weight all your life, it is easy for most people to maintain a BMI below 25. In fact, after working with thousands of patients, you only need to remember three things when it comes to optimizing your weight – No sugar, no flour, and nothing after 7 PM.

No sugar and no flour are really just the same things.  Flour, whether it comes from wheat, rice, corn, etc. turns instantly to sugar minutes after swallowing it down.  Sugar and flour will throw off your metabolism, mess up your insulin sensitivity, and keep you hungry all day long.  Unless you are exercising for hours and hours every day, you can't eat this stuff long-term and expect to stay lean.

Likewise, late night eating is another sure fire way to thwart your body's natural metabolism.  To optimize metabolism and insulin sensitivity, you need a period of time without food.  And the easiest way to accomplish this goal is to stop eating by 7 PM assuming that you don't work nights.

3. At Least 30 Minutes of Exercise Every Day

With regards to this Harvard study, they don’t give you any days off. You have to be active every day. No excuses.

What you do for exercise doesn’t matter. My only rule is that you enjoy doing it because if you don’t, it will never stick. That daily dose of physical activity can be anything provided you break a sweat and get your heart rate up.

A quick disclaimer…if you haven't been exercising regularly, please speak with your physician first before adopting this longevity hack or, for that matter, any other hack mentioned in this article.

4. Keep Alcohol Intake in Check

In this study, Harvard researchers only looked at those with moderate levels of alcohol intake.  Interestingly, those who drank the least seemed to live the longest.

Alcohol and longevity is a difficult question to answer.  On one hand, you have some studies that claim moderate alcohol consumption has life-extending properties.  However, other studies claim this research is bogus because they didn't account for the abstainer bias.

And then you have the American Institute for cancer research which claims that there is no safe level of alcohol that can be consumed.  Even for the heart condition, atrial fibrillation, studies also show that there is no safe level of alcohol.

If you chose to drink, my advice would be to look for the minimally effective dose that you need.  If your BMI runs high, minimizing alcohol intake will help you to optimize your weight as alcohol packs a big sugar punch.

5. Eat a Healthy Diet

Despite evidence to the contrary, 75% of Americans think they are eating a healthy diet.  Just so there is no confusion, eating a healthy diet is really quite simple.  Eat real food.

If there is an ingredient list, it probably isn't real food.  Likewise, if it comes in a box, can, or jar it also probably isn't real food.  Real food looks like something you would grow in your garden or bring back from a hunt.

If you can just do these three things, then you are 90% of the way to a healthy diet.

1.  Don't eat sugar. (This includes fruit juice, honey, maple syrup, etc.)

2. Don't eat flour.  (Flour, whether it be from wheat, rice, corn, or potatoes, is still just sugar)

3. Eat vegetables with every meal. (And by every meal I also mean breakfast!)

Of course, I am not saying that vegetables should be the only thing in your diet.  Far from it.  It is just that people struggle with vegetables.  If you can get the vegetable thing right then the rest of the diet usually falls in line.

The Big Picture

If you want a life free of heart disease, cancer, and an early death it comes down to five simple health hacks.  Breathe the clean air, keep your BMI between 19 and 25, exercise daily, minimize alcohol, and eat real food.  Simply put, this is the best lifestyle for longevity!

What are your tips and tricks for optimizing these five health hacks? Please leave your thoughts and questions below. This comment section will be open for 30 days during which time I will respond to every question posted.

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Mindfulness vs. Tracking: Can you ever stop tracking?

We all know what to do.  The problem is doing it.  When it comes to losing weight and exercising daily, can you ever stop tracking?  In this article, I share the reasons behind my recent 10 pound weight gain and discuss mindfulness vs. tracking when it comes to maintaining healthy behaviors.

Why I Started Tracking

As those of you who have read our bestselling book, The Longevity Plan, know, that when I hit my health crisis a number of years ago I had to drop 30 pounds.  Fortunately, the weight loss happened effortlessly.

I didn't even have to track.  I could be mindful.

The reason why weight loss was effortless and I didn't have to track was because there were no temptations.  But upon returning to the US, tracking was the only thing that helped me to maintain the health I found in the Longevity Village.

Thus, to maintain my health and weight loss, I became a tracker.  I tracked everything. However, a few months ago, something changed...

My 10 Pound Weight Gain This Winter

I grew tired of tracking every piece of food I ate.  Getting on a scale everyday also wasn't any fun.  No longer did I want to count my daily steps or record every workout.

After more than four years of tracking everything, I needed a break.  Given the healthy routines I had built over the years, as well as the lessons I learned in China's Longevity Village, I was sure that I could make the right intentional decisions and practice mindfulness when it came to diet and exercise.

Instead of tracking every morsel of food, I let mindfulness guide my food intake.  I tried to listen to my internal food cues to know when I was hungry.  Every bite was chewed thoroughly to extract each flavor.  I ate slowly.  And I was grateful for the food I had.  With this mindfulness approach, I reasoned that moderation in all things is good and a little bit can't hurt...

By the time spring arrived, I got out the scale.  I had expected to see the same weight I have maintained for more than four years.  To my horror, the scale read 10 pounds heavier!  I was sure the scale was wrong.  Sadly, other scales confirmed the 10 pound winter weight gain was indeed real...

During my 4+ years of tracking everything, my weight never varied by more than two to three pounds.  Now, after just taking a month or two off from tracking, my weight shot up 10 pounds!  How can this be?

What Went Wrong?

Like most Americans, I had lost my internal cues of feeling full. I needed environmental cues.

By tracking, my iPhone app told me when I was supposed to feel full.  And with this environmental cue removed, I ate more than my body needed.  I also cheated a little bit in what I ate...

Of course, it didn't help that I have two copies of the "Fat Gene" (FTO variant gene).  The vast majority of people in the US with just one copy of the "Fat Gene" are doomed to a life of being overweight.  For those of us with two copies, our obesity fate is almost sealed...

I should have know better.  Study after study has shown that if you don't track your food it is next to impossible to maintain your weight loss.  I wanted to believe that being intentional and mindful would work for me in the US.  But it didn't...

I clearly knew my purpose for maintaining my weight loss.  I wanted maximal energy.  I didn't want to take medications again.  And I wanted to silence my Alzheimer's gene (ApoE4).  So how did this 10 pound weight gain happen so fast?

The Problem Was that Tracking Was No Longer Fun

After analyzing my failure, the problem came from changing the tracking app I use on my iPhone.  For more than four years I have used the "Lose It" app.

My favorite part of the Lose It app are the lifetime statistics.  For example, I love to see how many calories I have burned over the years skiing, mountain biking, or running.  It is like a contest to see which sport will win.

The reason why I switched is that Lose It doesn't track the micronutrients of foods.  I wanted to make sure that I was getting enough calcium, zinc, potassium and other essential micronutrients from my plant-based diet.  Because Lose It can't tell me about the micronutrients of the foods I eat, I switched to the Cronometer app.

Cronometer gives you far more nutritional information than Lose It.  Because it is so good, I even opted for the paid version.

While Cronometer is a much better food and nutrition tracking app, it lacks the lifetime calorie burn from different workouts.  And because this one little component was missing, tracking was no longer fun.  When tracking was no longer fun, I thought I could rely on mindfulness...

Keystone Habits

In one of my favorite books, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes about keystone habits.  Leveraging your keystone habit is what makes behavior change possible.  The keystone habit is your key domino.  If you can do this one thing right, everything else will fall into place.

For me, my keystone habit is exercise.  Fortunately, I became addicted to exercise at age 22.

Exercising outside is my daily antidepressant. Indeed, studies show that about 15 minutes of daily exercise has the same beneficial effect on depression as taking an antidepressant.  If I even go a day without exercising outside I become very depressed.  No one wants to be around me if I miss a day of exercising outside.

The reason why I gained 10 pounds this winter is that I failed to leverage my keystone habit.  I love the sense of accomplishment of seeing my lifetime exercise statistics.

The reason why the Lose It tracking app worked for me is because I could see my lifetime workout statistics.  This reward helped me to also record my daily food intake.  When the reward was gone, it was too much of a burden to track my food.  So I stopped tracking.

I Gained Weight Even Though I Was Exercising

Whenever I talk with patients about losing weight, nine times out of ten they tell me why they can't exercise.  For some strange reason, most people think that exercise is the key to weight loss.

Surprisingly, the medical literature doesn't support this at all.  Indeed, study after study has confirmed that exercise alone doesn't cause weight loss.  Weight loss is primarily determined by food choices.  What we eat, when we eat, and how much we eat.

During my mindfulness experiment in the US, I was actually exercising more.  I know it seems counterintuitive but even though I was exercising more my weight went up!

My favorite time of the year to exercise is winter.  So every day this past winter I either cross country skied or climbed snow covered mountains to ski.  Both of these activities have incredible calorie burns.  But despite these massive calorie burns, I still gained weight...

My Steps Dropped Off

When I stopped tracking my food I also stopped tracking my daily step count.  Even though I thought I was no longer tracking my steps, my Apple Watch was still tracking them in the background.

Because taking steps isn't fun for me, my daily step count did drop when I stopped tracking.  However, in doing the math, this slight drop in steps could only explain perhaps a pound or two at most of my 10 pound weight gain.

This observation brings up another interesting point of why people don't lose weight with exercise.  Humans, like every other animal, conserve energy.  In fact, studies show that we are hard wired to be as lazy as possible.

Indeed, countless studies show that when people or animals are exercised, they subconsciously become less active throughout the rest of the day to conserve energy.  This happened to me as well with my mindfulness experiment in the US.

When I stopped tracking my steps, I didn't take any more steps than I needed to.  As sitting is now the "new smoking" when it comes to cancer, heart disease, and premature death risk we all need every possible advantage to avoid our prewired nature to sit.  It is for this reason that I recommend not only 30 minutes of daily exercise for my patients but also at least 10,000 steps as well.

We have to move throughout the day.  A single killer workout simply isn't enough.

The 3 Easy Steps to Behavior Change

Behavior change is never easy.  Based on reviewing every study I could find, and from working with thousands of patients, here are the three things you need to do for successful behavior change.

1.  Have a Purpose

You need a strong purpose.  If your reason for behavior change is to fit into your bathing suit again this summer your purpose probably isn't strong enough.  Choosing health is not easy in a life full of temptations.

Studies show that a medical crisis, like a cancer or heart disease diagnosis, can be powerful motivators.  For me it really comes down to feeling young, avoiding medications, and silencing my Alzheimer's gene.

2. Create the Right Environment

Creating the right environment was the secret to the people living in China's Longevity Village.  In fact, this was all they had when it came to behavior change.  And if done right, this may be the strongest of the three steps.

Historically, there were no temptations in the Longevity Village.  If you never saw sugar, processed carbohydrates, or fast food then you would never be tempted.  And if you were never tempted, then you would never miss these foods or feel deprived.

Likewise, if people ate vegetables as part of their breakfast, lunch, and dinner then you would have no choice but to learn to like vegetables.  Also, if everyone did hand farming all day, everyday, then you would never be tempted to sit.

Indeed, I found that when I lived in China's Longevity Village I could stop tracking.  Because there were no temptations, I could be mindful.  And every time I returned from the Longevity Village, I found that I had effortlessly lost weight.

When it comes to creating the right environment you need to eliminate every temptation that you can....

5 Ways to Lose Weight with Pasta

Everyone knows pasta causes weight gain.  Would you be surprised to learn that scientific studies show the opposite?  In this article, I cover the latest pasta study and share five ways to lose weight with pasta.

The Latest Pasta Study

In a study published this week in the prestigious British Medical Journal, researchers from Canada pooled together the results of 32 studies looking at 2,448 people.  And what they found goes against what you read in all of the popular health books...

When carefully analyzing the results of 32 different studies of 2,448 pasta eating people, these researchers found that eating pasta, as part of an otherwise healthy diet, doesn't cause weight gain.  In fact, those eating pasta every day actually lost about one pound provided pasta was part of a healthy diet.

How Can this Study Be True?

This study must be wrong.  Everyone knows pasta makes you gain weight.  Let me give you four reasons why this study may be right.

1.  Pasta is relatively low on the glycemic index.

The glycemic index measures how fast food is converted to sugar in the body.  Foods high on the list, like bread, are instantly converted to sugar.

White bread has a glycemic index in the high 70s.  Even "healthy" whole wheat bread also has a glycemic index score in the high 70s.  These high glycemic scores tell us that the standard store-bought bread is little more than just sugar.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have foods like nuts which have almost no sugar response in the body.  With nuts, the glycemic index will typically be under 20.

Pasta, surprisingly, has a relatively low glycemic index score in the 40s.  Thus, it is somewhere between bread and nuts when it comes to how fast it is converted to sugar in the body.  Foods with a low glycemic index are generally healthier and promote weight loss as they are much more filling and don't throw off your metabolism.

2. Pasta Portion Sizes were Controlled.

While the portion sizes of pasta varied in these 32 studies, in general, a reasonable portion size is about the size of your fist.  These studies didn't include the massive pasta bowls that you might see in a typical U.S. restaurant.

3. What You Put on the Pasta Matters

It should come as no surprise that a lot of the 32 studies came from Italy and other Mediterranean countries.  Thus, pasta sauce using tomatoes, vegetables, and olive oil were common.  It wasn't a big bowl of cheesy pasta like you might see at the Olive Garden restaurant.

4. It Matters What the Rest of Your Diet Looks Like

As mentioned, only those who ate an otherwise healthy diet didn't gain weight with pasta.  If the rest of your diet is healthy, pasta won't cause weight gain.

5 Ways to Lose Weight with Pasta

Depending on where your current diet is at, let me suggest five ways to lose weight with pasta.  I have listed these in order of their nutritional value and the likelihood that you will lose weight with pasta.

1.  Use Vegetable Noodles

Using fresh vegetables as your noodles is clearly the healthiest option.  Zucchini, carrots, squash, cucumbers, or sweet potatoes can easily be cut into spirals with a machine to create incredibly healthy pasta.

While vegetable noodles are off the charts nutritionally, there are a few downsides.  First, you need a vegetable noodle maker.  For about $15 you can get one of these at Walmart or on Amazon.  For those of you who don't want to use a machine to cut up your veggies into noodle strips, Whole Foods always has fresh vegetable noodles available, but you will definitely pay for this convenience.

Second, vegetable pasta doesn't taste like regular pasta.  It is for this reason that I struggle with vegetable noodles.

Don't be fooled by a little spinach in your typical pasta.  That little bit of spinach doesn't do anything to the nutritional aspect of your pasta.  If you want the best pasta when it comes to nutrition, it has to be all vegetables.

2. Bean Pasta

The second healthiest way to eat pasta is to use a bean pasta.  Fortunately, bean pasta comes much closer to the taste and texture of traditional pasta.

Almost any bean can be made into pasta.  With bean pasta, you are going to get an even lower glycemic index number.  Also, with a bean pasta, you will get a ton of protein and fiber as well to fill you up.

If you want to give bean pasta a try, Amazon has many choices.  Also, health food stores, like Whole Foods, has many bean pasta options.

3. Quinoa Pasta

Down one level from bean pasta is quinoa pasta.  While you won't get as much protein and fiber as with a bean pasta, it is still probably better for you than wheat pasta.  Also, for those wishing to avoid gluten, this is another option.

4. Turn Regular Pasta into a Resistant Starch

Number four on the list is to take your regular pasta and turn it into a resistant starch.  While this doesn't boost the nutritional content, it does put the pasta even lower on the glycemic index.

With a resistant starch, you are making the pasta even harder for your body to convert to sugar.  This slow-burning carb helps to keep you full and won't lead to a sugar/insulin crash.

To convert your pasta to a resistant starch, simply put your cooked pasta in the fridge overnight.  The process of cooking, cooling, and then cooking again converts it to a resistant starch.

5. Replace Bread with Pasta

Last on the list if you want to lose weight with pasta is to simply replace bread with regular pasta.  Nutritionally they are about the same.  However, because even regular pasta is so much lower from a glycemic standpoint than bread, you are much less likely to mess up your metabolism.

The Big Picture

Pasta can be incredibly healthy if eaten right.  Even the standard pasta is probably "less bad" for you than eating bread.  Of course this also depends on what you put on your pasta...a big portion size or that cheesy sauce could completely undo any possible benefit.

When it comes to optimizing your metabolism, you want all of your foods to be at least less than 50 on the glycemic index.  To learn where your favorite foods fall on the glycemic index, here is a great chart from Harvard University.

Do you have any "pasta hacks" to make pasta healthy?  Please leave your tips below.

How to Bulletproof Your Brain

I want to share a message of hope for those of you with a family history of dementia.  According to a new study, one simple habit can cut your risk of dementia by 90%!  In this article, I will teach you how to bulletproof your brain.

The Swedish Dementia Study

Researchers from Sweden just published a study that rocked the neurology/dementia world.  After following the people in this study for 44 years, researchers found that for those who are in the top 5% of their age group for physical fitness, then the risk of dementia dropped by 90%! And in those incredibly rare cases where a very physically fit person did develop dementia, it didn't happen until after age 90.

No other intervention has ever been shown to have such a profound effect on protecting the brain. Of course, to make it to the top 5% for physical fitness in your age group will also require that you are eating right, optimizing sleep, etc.

How does exercise bulletproof your brain?

Studies show that exercise helps clear the dementia debris that piles up in the brain as we age. Also, physical activity is the most potent stimulator of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which causes the growth and development of brain cells.

Other studies have shown that people cut back on physical activity about ten years before developing dementia. Thus, if you have had no drop off in your daily exercise, then these studies suggest your brain will stay sharp for at least ten more years.

As dementia scares me to death, since reading this study I have significantly bumped up my daily exercise regimen.  I'm banking on the fact that because my physical fitness continues to improve that I can bulletproof my brain.

Key Takeaway

The message here is clear. If you want to bulletproof your brain it is going to require a very high level of physical fitness.  Walking around the block just isn't going to cut it according to this study.

In addition to a high level of physical fitness, you also need to cut out the sugar and dramatically boost the veggies.  At least seven hours of sleep, embracing stress, and learning new things daily will also help to bulletproof your brain.

Of course, If you haven't done much more than walking, now is the time to work with your physician on finding the right way to increase your stamina.  Don't boost your daily exercise without speaking to your physician first.

Low Carb or Low Fat: Which is Best?

Should you go low carb or low fat for weight loss? I'm guessing you would pick low carbs. However, if I had asked you this same question 20 years ago, the answer would likely have been different.  Would you believe me if I told you that it probably doesn't matter based on a big new study from Stanford University?

The Best Low Carb vs. Low Fat Study

In this new study, Stanford researchers recruited 609 adults who were willing to eat either low carb or or low fat for a year based on the "flip of a coin." A year later, the low-fat group lost about 13 pounds and the low-carb group also lost about 13 pounds.

When they looked at glucose and insulin metabolism, they also saw no meaningful difference. Where things really got interesting was when they looked at the genes of everyone in this study. Even if your genes predicted you would do better eating low fat or low carb, the study results showed that it just didn't matter.

The 3 Success Factors to Losing Weight

Interestingly, when these Stanford researchers analyzed those who lost the most weight in the study, they found three factors.

1. Those losing the most weight avoided sugar.

2. Those losing the most weight avoided flour.

3. Those losing the most weigh ate a lot of vegetables.

 

Number one on this list, avoiding sugar, should come as a surprise to no one.  Almost everyone loses weight if they can give up the sugar addiction.

Likewise, number three, eating a lot of vegetables, is another no brainer.  If you fill up on vegetables you'll lose weight and feel so much healthier.

Number two, avoiding flour, however may come as a surprise to many. The reason for this is that when a grain is pulverized to a dust-like form, the body absorbs it so fast that it raises blood glucose almost as much as eating straight sugar. Thus, to keep your metabolism in check, if you choose to eat grains only eat intact grains.

What does this study tell us?

Even though it may seem counter intuitive, this study fits nicely with what we know about diets and nutrition. The bottom line is that low carb or low fat can be healthy provided you avoid sugar, including flour, processed foods, and eat a ton of vegetables. Basically, you need to find what works for you and then stick with it.

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