KTK-Nutrition

This week my husband showed me an interesting article in TIME, Can Taurine Slow Aging?   Who isn’t interested in slowing down father time?   Then my husband asked me if I knew what taurine was.   I said, “sure, it is an amino acid in some proteins.”   So, what does taurine have to do with slowing aging?   What foods have taurine?   Are there ways to increase taurine levels in your body besides eating certain foods?   What is taurine? As noted in my blog, How can you add some high-quality protein foods to your day? , proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids.   Your body can make some amino acids but some you have to get from the foods you eat.   For babies taurine is an essential amino acid but adults can make the amino acid, taurine.      Taurine levels decline as you age. Although adults make taurine, the amount we make decreases substantially with age.   For example, in 60-year-old individuals,...

Blueberries – why are they considered a super healthy food?   Growing up, I went blueberry picking with my grandfather.   At first, more blueberries went into my mouth than into the bucket.   Who knew I was boosting my health every time I went blueberry picking? Why are blueberries so healthy?   What make blueberries a power food?   Health.com discusses the   5 Health Benefits of Blueberries, According to a Nutritionist .   1. Antioxidants – blueberries are “blue” or some say “purple”.   This coloring means blueberries provide different antioxidants than other colored fruit.   Berries , in particular, have higher antioxidant levels than other fruits.   Antioxidants are great for our health as they help protect our bodies and cells from damage and thus protect us from some diseases and “protect against inflammation ”.   Blueberries provide the antioxidant, anthocyanin which lowers our risk of certain cancers, helps our memorie...

Remember when maintaining your weight wasn’t so hard in your 20’s and 30’s?   Then come the 40’s, 50’s and beyond and keeping the weight off becomes quite the struggle.   How can you avoid that midlife weight- gain struggle ?   Adding pounds as you age, doesn’t mean you are eating all that much.   Your body changes as you age and it really is harder to keep the weight off.   What are those changes and how can we keep some of those pounds from showing up on our hips and waist?   Bicycling .com has some good suggestions. How the body changes as you age: Fat cells -those pesky little buggers that are happy to grow bigger as they fill up with fat.   An article in Nature found that how our fat cells burn and store fat changes as we age.   Basically, as we age our fat cells store fat as before, but fat cells are less likely to release that stored fat, thus making it easier to add on those pounds.   To try to keep the weight off, many people...

Who doesn’t want to stop father time?   We can’t turn back the clock, but we can establish some habits that will keep us healthier as we age.   WebMD has some good advice in their article, The Secret to Healthy Aging .   They acknowledge there is no fountain of youth but establishing some healthy habits can make your life more enjoyable and extend your life span.   What tips do they offer?      1. Keep Moving – keep exercising and stay physically active.   So many health benefits to exercise:   reducing heart disease risks, you sleep better, have a better memory, less depressed, stronger bones and you are less likely to fall when you are older.          2. What kind of exercise? Aerobic or Cardio is a good way to strengthen your heart and to get fit.    But one doesn’t have to go to the gym to get some aerobic exercise.   Walk at a faster pace, go for a bike ride or ride a station...