5 Simple Health Tips

1. Get Real
Most Americans view their own weight through rose-colored glasses. While approximately 65 percent of us are overweight (and a third of that number are obese), only 40 percent of us recognize the need to shed some pounds.

Innumerable studies link a healthy weight with a long life, and even a little extra weight can raise your mortality risk. Among healthy nonsmoking Americans, those who were overweight at age 50 had a 20 to 40 percent greater risk of death than those who maintained a healthy weight.

Probably the most accurate predictor of mortality is waist-to-hip ratio. That’s because BMI (body mass index) doesn’t differentiate between body fat and muscle mass. Abdominal fat relates most strongly to cardiovascular risk.

Invest in a tape measure, and then divide the inches around your waist by those around your hips. Women want a waist-to-hip ratio that’s 0.8 or below; for men, aim for 0.9 or less.

2. Enjoy a Plant-Based Diet
Eating plenty of vegetables and fresh fruits and using olive oil as your main source of fat is a healthy way to keep calories under control. While the Mediterranean diet appears to protect against cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and weight gain, go easy on the pasta and white bread, which have been linked to renal cell cancer. New research in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that when low-carb diets emphasize vegetable sources of fat and protein, they not only lower weight but also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Because fruits and veggies are high in fiber, they keep you feeling full while providing plenty of important nutrients without many calories. In animal studies, eating approximately 30 percent fewer calories while ingesting adequate amounts of nutrients appears to protect against Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other problems.

3. Get Moving
A brisk walk a couple of hours after a high-fat meal helps protect against cardiovascular disease, researchers at Indiana University report. In addition, regular exercise helps trim your waistline, makes you less likely to overeat, and improves both memory and mood. Nutritionist Carol Simontacchi, CCN, MS, says you can expect to lose 2 to 3 percent of body weight just by exercising. Imagine what exercise, combined with a lower calorie plant-based diet, can accomplish!

4. Sleep Well
Regular exercise also helps you relax and sleep better—a recently recognized factor in maintaining a healthy weight. Using data from the Nurses’ Health Study, researchers associate sleep deprivation with weight gain and obesity. To snooze soundly, don’t eat for several hours before retiring, relax in a warm bath, and keep your bedroom cool and dark. If you have trouble sleeping, try relaxing herbs (hops, kava, and valerian) a half hour before turning in.

5. Consider Supplements
Green tea contains L-theanine that promotes relaxation and deep sleep, as well as beneficial substances that enhance weight loss. This unfermented tea raises the rate at which we burn calories, while inhibiting increases in fat cell size and number. And at Arizona State University, nutrition experts report that low-fat dieters who took 500 mg of vitamin C daily burned higher amounts of fat than those on placebo.