Many other studies confirm that eating certain delicious superfoods regularly trims risk for heart attacks,

strokes, and cancer. These foods can help also keep you mentally sharp, and could lengthen your life significantly. Heres a look at seven nutritional powerhouses that could help you live to 100or beyond. A Guide to Cholesterol-Free Foods Whole grains. A 2011 study of more than 500,000 people was the first to link a high-fiber diet to longer life. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Association of Retired People (AARP) reported that fiber from whole grains, such as barley, buckwheat, oats, whole wheat, quinoa, rye, brown or wild rice, and amaranth, appeared the most beneficial at reducing the risk of death in older adults during the nine-year study. Men ages 50 or older who ate the most fiber were up to 56 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease (the leading killer of Americans), infectious diseases, and respiratory disorders during the study, while a high-fiber diet cut mortality from these causes by up to 59 percent. A study by the World Cancer Research Fund also reported that if we ate more fiberand less red meatmore than 64,000 cases of cancer would be prevented each year. Foods that Boost the Immune System Orange and dark green vegetables. These nutritional superstars may lengthen life and cut risk for cancer and other diseases, according a study of more than 15,000 people. The magic antioxidant contained in these foods appears to be alpha-carotene, Centers for Disease Control researchers suggested. People with the highest high blood levels of alpha-carotenefound in pumpkins, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, kale, romaine lettuce, and other orange or dark green vegetableswere 39 percent less likely to die during the longterm study, which began in 1988. They also had a lower rate of certain cancers, even when smoking and other risks were taken into account. Berries. Older women who eat the most strawberries and blueberries had the slowest rate of agerelated mental decline, new findings from the Harvard Nurses study report. The brain-booster may be anthocyanidins, a flavonoid with potent effects on memory and learning. It also reduces levels of C-reaction protein, an inflammatory marker linked to heart attack risk, another Harvard study reported. People who eat lots of strawberries are three times less likely to develop certain cancers, including those of the breast, skin, bladder, lungs, and esophagus. And those who consume the most fruits and vegetables enjoy a 25 percent lower risk of fatal cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes), compared to those who eat the least, a European study of 313,000 people found. Dark chocolate. Amazing but true: eating dark chocolate could actually save your life by dramatically reducing risk for heart attacks and stroke, new research shows. Dark chocolate and cocoa powder contain more disease-fighting antioxidants than do acai and other superfruits, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Chemistry Central Journal. People who eat the most chocolate are 37 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular diseasethe leading killer of Americansand 29 percent less likely to suffer a stroke, compared to those who eat the least, according to an analysis of studies involving 114,009 participants. One of the most surprising findings was that indulging in the sweet treat trims diabetes risk by 31 percent, researchers reported in British Medical Journal (BMJ). Almonds. Another BMJ article suggests that eating six foods dailyalmonds, dark chocolate, wine, garlic, and fruits and vegetablesplus fish four times a week could cut risk for cardiovascular disease by 76 percent. Based on earlier research, the scientists estimated that men who follow this diet could add an average of 6.6 years to their life and women could add 4.8 years. The Harvard Nurses Study reports that eating nuts regularly, instead of the same amount of calories from carbs, trims heart disease risk by 30 percent. And surprising as it sounds, these high-calorie nibbles also help you avoid packing on pounds. According to a study in Obesity, weight gain was 31 percent less likely for people who eat nuts at least twice a week, versus those avoided them. Oily fish. Salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, and other oily fishalong with pecans, walnuts and flaxseedare rich in omega-3 fatty acids that enhance longevity, raise levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, and improve brain function. The emphasis on oily fish is thought to be one reason why the Japanese enjoy the worlds longest lifespan. Studies of blue zonesareas with unusually high numbers of people ages 100 or older, such as Okinawa and Sardiniafind that while the inhabitants diets vary, they usually include fish. Portion control is key to long life: Okinawan centenarians stay lean and healthy with a cultural tradition called hara hachi bu (only eating until they feel 80 percent full). http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/how-working-the-muscles-may-boost-brainpower/ Upending the clich of muscleheads, scientists at the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging recently set out to examine whether changes in muscles prompted by exercise might subsequently affect and improve the brains ability to think. Lab animals and people generally perform better on tests of cognition after several weeks of exercise training, and studies have shown that over time, running and other types of endurance exercise increase the number of neurons in portions of the brain devoted to memory and learning. But the mechanisms that underlie this process remain fairly mysterious. Do they start within the brain itself? Or do messages arrive from elsewhere in the body to jumpstart the process?

The researchers were especially interested in the possibility that the action starts outside the brain and specifically in the muscles. We wondered whether peripheral triggers might be activating the cellular and molecular cascades in the brain that led to improvements in cognition, says Henriette van Praag, the investigator at the National Institute on Aging who led the study. Muscles are, of course, greatly influenced by exercise. Muscle cells respond to exercise by pumping out a variety of substances that result in larger, stronger muscles. Some of those compounds might be entering the bloodstream and traveling to the brain, Dr. van Praag says. The problem is that exercise is such a complicated physiological stimulus that its very difficult to isolate which compounds are involved and what their effects might be. So she and her colleagues decided to study fake exercise instead, using two specialized drugs that had been tested several years ago by scientists at the Salk Institute in San Diego. The drugs had been shown to induce the same kinds of changes in sedentary animals muscles that exercise would cause, so that even though the mice didnt exercise, they physiologically responded as if they had. One of the drugs that they used, known as Aicar, increases the muscles output of AMPK, an enzyme that affects cellular energy and metabolism. Regular endurance exercise, like running or cycling, increases the muscles production of this enzyme. In the Salk experiments, Aicar enabled untrained mice to run 44 percent farther during treadmill tests than other, sedentary animals that hadnt received the drug. The second compound, GW1516, a cholesterol drug, also stimulates biochemical changes in muscle cells like those caused by endurance exercise. But in the Salk studies, it had amplified endurance primarily in animals that also ran, allowing them to run farther than another set of running mice that didnt get the drug. But it hadnt done much muscle-wise for animals that remained sedentary. By using these drugs in unexercised animals under well-controlled conditions, the scientists from the National Institute on Aging sought to determine whether changes in muscles then initiated changes in the brain. And as it turned out, muscles did affect the mind. After a week of receiving either of the two drugs (and not exercising), the mice performed significantly better on tests of memory and learning than control animals that had simply remained quiet in their cages. The effects were especially pronounced for the animals taking Aicar. The results, published in the journal Learning and Memory, showed that the drugged animals brains also contained far more new neurons in brain areas central to learning and memory than the brains of the control mice, an effect found by microscopic examination. Because the two drugs dont cross the blood-brain barrier much, if at all, Dr. van Praag says, we could be fairly confident that the changes we were seeing were related to an exercise-type reaction in the muscles and not to brain responses to the drugs. The message of this finding, she continues, is that improvements in cognition that follow exercise would seem to involve changes throughout the body and not just in the brain. Although the exact process isnt clear, Dr. van Praag speculates that some of the AMPK enzyme created during exercise enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain, setting off a series of new reactions there.