Why do we age?

Researchers have yet to unravel the mysteries with aging. But more and more is discussed around the role of the telomeres. Telomeres are the region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromatid, which protects the end of the chromosome.

Telomeres play an important role in cell division. As telomeres shorten, a critical threshold is reached where the cells no longer replicate and starts to decline and eventually dies.

Each time a cell divides, the DNA unwraps and the information in the DNA is copied. The process doesn t copy all of the DNA information- the telomeres are not copied. The telomeres lose a little bit of length each time this happens.

Researcher now understands more of the life of the telomeres and the mechanism by which the telomeres can be restored.

There is a lot of data from laboratory tests supporting the theory that stress and other oxidative damage also damage the telomeres and increases the rate by which telomeres are shorten.

Living a healthy lifestyle by not smoking, lowering stress levels, exercising and eating healthy are thought to slow down the rate of telomeres loss, but we can probably not undo what is already done.

While we may not be able to stop cell ageing, at least not yet, we can adopt lifestyle modifications such as avoiding excessive stress and maintain ideal weight.

Healthy living is our best defence in slowing down the sign and symptoms of ageing.

So if we eat healthy, exercise, stress less and don't smoke we can avoid many of our chronic diseases, age related diseases and ageing, so what 's stopping us?


Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

 

Reflections from my two weeks of vegetarian diet

I hope you have enjoyed my recipes, and maybe even tried some. If I quickly would sum up my experiences from the last two weeks, I would say – I’ll not become a vegetarian. Don’t get me wrong I loved the dishes that we made, but I very much missed fish and sometimes chicken. I could do without meat, but I would have a hard time with a diet without fish. 

I already now eat most of my lunches with raw food, but my dinner will always include fish or chicken.

There are so many amazing vegetarian recipes out there to choose from, and I’m sure I’ll do more vegetarian dishes in the future but I will not become a vegetarian.

There's no doubt in my mind that for the average person not used to cooking vegetables, they are far more intimidating than cooking meat, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. The first few days or maybe weeks might be hard before you get the hang of it. You need to plan a bit more; you can’t really have your fresh vegetables in the freezer. But before you know it, cooking vegetables will become just as easy as cooking meat was before.

So, if you would like to give the vegetarian diet a try for a few weeks, here are some tips;

·         Start with an open mind. You can’t really fail, have fun and try new vegetables

·         Plan your meals and give yourself extra time to cook

·         Fill your pantry with vegetarian friendly products, beans and grains

·         Don’t fall for readymade vegetarian food, cook yourself

·         Most of all have fun.

This might not be for you all the time, but why not add a few vegetarian dishes each week

Have fun and enjoy something new!!!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the pleasure to attend a raw food seminar in August last year, which was amazing and mind opening for me. I have always eaten salads with all my meals, and really enjoyed it but to focus on raw food as your main diet is totally different.

I would not go 100% raw because I like my fish and meat every once in a while, and I love a nice warm soup on a cold winter day, but having one or two meals per day with raw vegetables and fruit is lovely.

You feel energetic, have more mental focus, your skin will glow, you will have less of those daily aches and pains, and it will give you a feeling that you are in a state of wellbeing.

Why not start with a raw lunch for a week or two to experience the difference?

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au