A new way to weigh yourself

Skip the traditional scale, and step on a body composition monitor, says Dr. Pamela Peeke, author of Body for Life for Women. It can measure percentage of body fat, plus muscle and bone mass.

"It's more important to know how much fat you have than what you weigh," say Peeke. Too much belly fat has been linked to disease. Women ages 40 to 59 should have no more than 31% fat; men, 25%.

You can track your progress too. "Watching the percentage of fat go down and muscle go up is a great incentive," says Peeke. The monitors use electrical currents to calculate body tissue weight.

Nancy Coventry - Reader's Digest

4 Diet Myths

MYTH: The healthiest diet is fat-free.
FACT: "You need some fat for your body to function properly," says Karen Miller-Kovach, MS, RD, chief scientist at Weight Watchers International. Fat helps transport vitamins A, D, E and K to tissues throughout your body. And some dietary fats help regulate your hormones and keep your nervous system humming. "It also contributes to satiety," says Miller-Kovach, so you don't walk around perpetually hungry. The general recommendation is to keep your fat intake between 20 to 30 percent of your total daily calories. So don't be fat phobic, she says. "There's no need to shun all foods that contain fat."

MYTH: Sugar is fattening.
FACT: There's little scientific evidence that a high-sugar diet leads to obesity. Not that you'd want to (since sugar doesn't provide any of the vitamins and minerals needed for good health), but you could consume 2,000 calories worth of sugar a day and not gain weight — if your body requires 2,000 calories a day to maintain your current weight, says Columbia University nutrition professor Audrey Cross, PhD. Sugar is pure carbohydrate. Your body processes it the same way it does any carb, including bread and fruit. Of course, many sugary favorites, such as doughnuts, are not the best choice not just because of all the sugar, but also the fat. Fresh fruit is your best bet if you have a sweet tooth.

MYTH: Food cravings are best ignored.
FACT: "Ignoring a food craving can lead to backlash," Miller-Kovach says. If you feel deprived, you might give up and overindulge in the craved food. A better idea: "Go for the lowest-fat, lowest-calorie item in the category you're craving, say chocolate frozen yogurt for a chocolate fix," Cross suggests. Or have a small amount of the real thing, such as a square of high-quality chocolate. If neither curbs your craving, look at the bigger picture. Cross adds that a craving that persists could mean your diet is too limited, or that you could be craving emotionally, perhaps due to anxiety, anger or stress.

MYTH: Eating at night leads to weight gain.
FACT: It doesn't matter what time you eat; your body burns calories 24 hours a day. "Although your metabolism does slow down at night, it doesn't slow down enough to make a difference," says Miller-Kovach. So go ahead and eat dinner at 8 p.m., or have a midnight snack without feeling guilty. Overall, says Miller-Kovach, it's the number of calories you take in over the course of a week — not the time of day you eat — that contributes to weight gain or loss.

From: www.weightwatchers.com

Invigorate lifestyle to lower your blood pressure

You probably already know that exercise helps control high blood pressure (HBP). What you may not know is that you don't have to go to the gym to do it. You just have to rake some leaves or go for a walk.

Research in the August 2005 issue of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that small bursts of so-called "lifestyle" activities work just as well as structured cardiovascular exercise at lowering HBP.

Study participants engaged in raking, walking, and other home and gardening activities over a 12-hour period. The subjects also spent another 12 hours without any physical activity.
Adding physical activity reduced systolic blood pressure by 6.6 points on average among those with blood pressure ranging from 120–139/80–89 mm Hg and by 12.9 points among adults with hypertension (higher than 140/90 mm Hg). Better still, blood pressures stayed low for up to eight hours after the physical activity.

Adding lifestyle exercise may not completely eliminate the need for medication. But it could lower the dosage or frequency. Be sure to talk to your doctor before adding any exercise to your daily activities.

Fishing for Cognitive Health

For the past several years, scientists believed that the fatty acids found in fish oil help protect the human brain from the type of cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. Now, Louisiana State University researchers think they know why that is.

They have found that the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) reduces levels of a protein known to cause damaging plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The researchers also learned that the human brain actually makes its own form of DHA, which they call neuroprotectin D1.

"Obviously, diet is a major issue here," Dr. Nicolas G. Bazan, director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, told The New York Times. "DHA is an essential building block for the structure of brain cells. And now we are finding that this building block also makes a 'golden brick' (neuroprotectin D1) that helps the life of the neurons to continue."

Omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA, are found primarily in cold-water fish such as mackerel, sardines, tuna, and salmon. Ask your doctor about incorporating more fish into your diet.