RealAge.com put these up a while ago. Not bad, and the addition of watercress is interesting.

The top 10:

1. 1. Green leafy vegetables. Eat them raw, throw them into a broth, add them to juices. Their chlorophyll helps swab out environmental toxins (heavy metals, pesticides) and is an all-round liver protector.
   2. Lemons. You need to keep the fluids flowing to wash out the body and fresh lemonade is ideal. Its vitamin C – considered the detox vitamin – helps convert toxins into a water – soluble form that?s easily flushed away.
   3. Watercress. Put a handful into salads, soups, and sandwiches. The peppery little green leaves have a diuretic effect that helps move things through your system. And cress is rich in minerals too.
   4. Garlic. Add it to everything – salads, sauces, spreads. In addition to the bulb’s cardio benefits, it activates liver enzymes that help filter out junk.
   5. Green tea. This antioxidant-rich brew is one of the healthiest ways to get more fluids into your system. Bonus: It contains catechins, which speed up liver activity.
   6. Broccoli sprouts. Get ‘em at your health-food store. They pack 20 to 50 times more cancer-fighting, enzyme-stimulating activity into each bite than the grown-up vegetable.
   7. Sesame seeds. They’re credited with protecting liver cells from the damaging effects of alcohol and other chemicals. For a concentrated form, try tahini, the yummy sesame seed paste that?s a staple of Asian cooking.
   8. Cabbage. There are two main types of detoxifying enzymes in the liver; this potent veggie helps activate both of them. Coleslaw, anyone?(and I’d add Kimchee)
      
   9. Psyllium. A plant that’s rich in soluble fiber, like oat bran, but more versatile. It mops up toxins (cholesterol too) and helps clear them out. Stir powdered psyllium into juice to help cleanse your colon, or have psyllium-fortified Bran Buds for breakfast.
   10. Fruits, fruits, fruits. They’re full of almost all the good things above – vitamin C, fiber, nutritious fluids, and all kinds of antioxidants. Besides, nothing tastes better than a ripe mango, fresh berries, or a perfect pear.

From Realage.com

Bill Starr is one of the greats of American Coaching … But my lord, did he need a Stylist!

Science Daily reported that Cagliari, Italy, A small Italian town in the Sardinian province of Nuoro has been named as one of healthiest places in the world.

Why are these Italians so healthy?  Mainly because they live the way we all know we are supposed to, but don’t.

They have physical jobs (exercise);  eat a diet based around protein (and lots of fish), fruits, vegetables, good fats (like Olive Oil), and whole grains;  and have a low stress lifestyle.

We bring most of our maladies onto ourselves (I’m certainly no exception).  But, if living is a goal worth attaining, then the steps required must be taken if we wish to achieve it.

The plan is relatively simple.

This comes from Keith Scott’s Blog:

1. Diet– Change it. Eat six small meals a day. Eat your carbs early in the day, and keep them to a minimum as the day progresses. Eat protein for each meal if you can. Eat good fats throughout the day too (i.e. fish oil, olive oil.) Decrease calories slowly, not all at once and get some help figuring out how many you should have. (Many people UNDER eat and cannot lose fat because they shut their own metabolism down)
2. Resistance Training – Get on a good, consistent resistance-training program, at least three times a week. Adding muscle is a great way to ramp up your metabolism and lose fat. In addition, resistance training will help melt fat off quicker than most forms of exercise.
3. High Intensity Cardio– Start doing some high intensity cardio exercise at least three times a week.  Try HIIT training (you can read more about it in my blog…scroll down.) Remember, high intensity is relative depending on your fitness level. You do not have to have a “set” intensity; the intensity is relative to your own fitness levels. This means that almost anyone can do high intensity cardio training. It is the best way to burn fat long term, throughout the day.

One expert says to eat like a Neanderthal and another says eat like a Visigoth, or perhaps a Viking. But while searching for nutritional Valhalla, most people just get lost and eat like a Modern American—and end up looking more Sumo than Samurai.–Dr. John Berardi

A study at the Baycrest Research Centre for Aging and the Brain, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, looked at 184 patients , who showed up with complaints of mental decline.

The study found that those patients who spoke more than one language had developed the cognitive impairment, on average, 4 years later than those patients that spoke only one language.

It’s another reminder that your brain is like the rest of your body.  It needs exercise too.

I was listening to an old Fitcast interview with Dan John about his forays into dieting, and in it he mentioned something that sparked my interest. Often when we talk about diet, we get bogged down in the particulars. But really, there are some basics that form a foundation upon which everything else is built.

Here are the 3 key things he said you should include in EVERY meal.

1. Lean Protein.
2. Fiber. (preferably from vegetables)
3. Fish Oil.

If all you did was make these 3 elements the foundation of your diet, you’d be leagues ahead of the pack.

I write a lot about why people should lose body fat.  But, that doesn’t mean you should be “small”.   Becoming fit is a two part process.  The first part is losing fat, but the other, that is equally important is gaining muscle.

If you don’t actively try and put on muscle while you are going through a fat loss program (ie, weight training), then you will end up Skinny Fat.  A small person, with no muscle.  And the instant you eat one little cookie, you’ll become EVEN FATTER than you were before.

Never neglect the weight training.

The same scientists who brought the Leptin fat-loss gene to the world, are now saying that it may not be a factor in obesity.

This time they took 300 people who had become obese at a very young age and tested them for the gene, but found that only 3% of their subjects had it. So that means that 9 people they researched had it.

But, to me, the take home message is that whether you have a gene for obesity or not, being fat is largely determined by lifestyle factors. It would not behoove those 9 people to just become morose, because of their genetic defect. They are still overweight, and that extra weight will impact their health in a number of ways we all know about.

If someone was born less inteligent than someone else, would you tell them that they shouldn’t bother going to college. Shouldn’t learn to read? Just accept it? OF course not. You’d encourage them to work harder.

Leanness is largely a function of exercise habits and a good diet. And the sooner we accept it the better, not only for our body-shape, but much more importantly, our health.

Everyone (who isn’t paralyzed or has some similar malady) can be lean. Period.

A recent article in the LA times states that Interval Training is on the rise.  I don’t buy it.

OK, OK, the shear fact that there was an article on it in the LA times does bode well, but I work in the industry, and I ain’t seeing it.  It’s not on Opera, or GoodMorning America.  And everywhere I look, I see fat people.

If it was REALLY popular, like K-Fed popular, then we’d have a far fitter nation.

And yet, there is an interest.  When I tell someone that 10-15 mins of intervals 3 to 4 days a week beats out an hour of “heart zone” cardio 6 days a week, they can’t help but be interested.  But, it’s hard to believe, until you try it.

But, that brings up the second problem.  Steady state, heart-zone cardio can be fun and relatively relaxed.  You can read an article in Cosmo or People and carry on a conversation while you do it.

However if you do 15 min’s of intervals, you can’t read, you can’t talk, and you will likely feel like passing out.  In short, it’s HARD.  So, people don’t WANT to do it.  But it WORKS.

I hope that it really does become a more popular training method, our entire country would benefit.