If you’re feeling as blue as the skies above, you will be happy to know that a few spoonfuls of the right foods may turn that frown upside down! Whole foods contain vital nutrients that provide both physical and psychological benefits. Read on to discover which foods contain those mood-boosters to help you smile your way to longevity. Fun with Folate Eat folate-rich foods: Leafy greens like kale, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, bok choy, legumes, sunflower seeds, oranges, melons, beets, and fortified whole grains Why? Folate, also know as folic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that is necessary for cell division, DNA synthesis, and healthy blood cell production. Research at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has found a link between depression and low levels of folate. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for men and women is 400 micrograms and 600 micrograms for pregnant women. To keep you smiling, increase your intake of folate-rich foods. A cup of cooked lentils provides 90% of the RDA of folic acid. Plus, the fiber and protein will satisfy you longer, stabilize blood sugar, and also promote a better mood. Additional bonuses: Folate can also decrease homocysteine, an amino acid that is linked to heart disease. Low levels of folate can cause anemia, while pregnant women must increase their folate levels to prevent fetal neural tube deficiencies. Boost Your B6 Eat B6 foods: bananas, chicken breast, garlic, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, sunflower seeds, broccoli, red bell peppers, watermelon, avocados, and potatoes Why? Vitamin B6 plays a role in red blood cell metabolism, protein metabolism, and synthesis of neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. It also helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels, and increases the amount of oxygen carried to your tissues. Low levels can lead to an increase of homocysteine, anemia, headaches, and depression. The RDA for adults from age 19 to 50 is 1.3 mg/day and approximately 1.6 mg for individuals over 50. The next time you’re feeling down, grab a banana and munch your blues away! Go Fish! Eat omega-3-rich foods: fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, and herring, flaxseeds, walnuts, and algae Why? DHA omega-3 essential fatty acid maintains healthy brain function and is vital for fetal brain and eye development. Current research also demonstrates the association between intake of omega-3 fatty acids and depression. A meta-analysis study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that depression was significantly improved in patients with unipolar and bipolar disorders after taking three daily fish capsules for eight weeks. Eat the oily fish listed above -- a 3-ounce serving of salmon contains between 1.1 - 1.9 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. Supplementing with high quality fish oil capsules may be an alternative if you don’t consume fish on a regular basis. Vegetarian sources of omega-3 can be found in flaxseeds, walnuts, and algae. Toss a tablespoon of sunflower seeds or walnuts into a creamy cup of unsweetened low-fat yogurt for a mega mood boost! Good Carbs, Bad Carbs Eat good carbs: whole grains, fruits, vegetables Why? Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Whole grains, fruits, and veggies supply us with prolonged energy, fiber, and multiple nutrients that our bodies need for optimal health. Good quality carbohydrates can also trigger serotonin synthesis. Recognized as the “happy hormone,” serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that affects our mood and sleep. The next time you feel blue, instead of reaching for that bag of chips or sugary cookies, opt for unrefined, unprocessed carbohydrates that will provide you with sustained energy and an improved mood. Toss that muffin and enjoy a whole grain cracker with a tablespoon of natural nut butter for a delicious and uplifting snack! You can find many more ways to live to 100 in Secrets of Longevity: Hundreds of Ways to Live to Be 100, which is now available on Kindle. Also, check out my new book Secrets of Longevity 8-Week Program, a journal that offers the best healthy habits to live to 100. You can find many more ways to live to 100 in Secrets of Longevity: Hundreds of Ways to Live to Be 100, which is now available on Kindle. Also, check out my new book Secrets of Longevity 8-Week Program, a journal that offers the best healthy habits to live to 100. I hope you eat foods for many long, happy years. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me. May you live long, live strong, and live happy! —Dr. Mao

Foods that Promote Happiness

We all have stress in our lives and how we deal with it will have an affect on our outlook on life and on our long term health prospects. In order to help your body cope with stress, it’s important to eat healthy meals and drink sensibly. Many people turn to alcohol and food abuse in order to try to reduce stress. This can have an opposite effect, increasing the amount of stress the person is under. A better practice is to take up relaxation techniques and perform solo exercising. Swimming would be a good exercise to relieve stress. Follow your values, be true to yourself. You don’t need to live by others values and expectations and it’s okay to tell someone ‘no’ in a respectful manner. Set yourself realistic goals and expectations and forgive yourself if you fall a little short; just use that as a starting point to continue reaching for your goal. If you’re feeling bad about yourself, give yourself a pep talk. Remind yourself about your successes. Take control of what you can and accept what you can’t. If you have unhealthful habits, work to remove them from your day to day life. Things such as smoking can not only negatively affect your long term health, they can also build on your stress. Remember, you can only do the best you can do, if there are too many demands on you and you can’t possibly fulfill them all, do the best you can do and accept you can’t do the rest. This means asking for help when appropriate and saying ‘no’ when you have to.

Manage Your Stress Like A Pro

UK experts say they may have found a way to check for Alzheimer's years before symptoms appear. A lumbar puncture test combined with a brain scan can identify patients with early tell-tale signs of dementia, they believe. Ultimately, doctors could use this to select patients to try out drugs that may slow or halt the disease. Currently there is no single test or cure for dementia, a condition that affects over 800,000 people in the UK. Experts are working hard to find treatments that prevent the disease or at least slow its progression. Unmet need Although there are many candidate drugs and vaccines in the pipeline, it is hard for doctors to test how well these work because dementia is usually diagnosed only once the disease is more advanced. Dr Jonathan Schott and colleagues at the Institute of Neurology, University College of London, believe they can now detect the most common form of dementia - Alzheimer's disease - at its earliest stage, many years before symptoms appear. Their approach checks for two things - shrinkage of the brain and lower than normal levels of a protein, called amyloid, in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain and spinal cord. Experts already know that in Alzheimer's there is loss of brain volume and an unusual build up of amyloid in the brain, meaning less amyloid in the CSF. Dr Schott's team reasoned that looking for these changes might offer a way of detecting the condition long before than is currently possible. To confirm this, they recruited 105 healthy volunteers to undergo a series of checks. The volunteers had lumbar puncture tests to check their CSF for levels of amyloid and MRI brain scans to calculate brain shrinkage. The results, published in Annals of Neurology, revealed that the brains of those normal individuals with low CSF levels of amyloid (38% of the group), shrank twice as quickly as the other group. They were also five times more likely to possess the APOE4 risk gene and had higher levels of another culprit Alzheimer's protein, tau. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Detecting dementia early is really important. It can open doors to new treatment targets...” End Quote Dr Anne Corbett of the Alzheimer's Society Although it is too soon to know if any of the volunteers will go on to develop Alzheimer's, the researchers believe their suspicions will be confirmed in the future. Crucially, it would allow doctors to test which drugs might be beneficial in delaying or preventing dementia. Preventive opportunity And for those who might be put off such screening by the need for a lumbar puncture, which involves drawing off fluid from around the spinal cord with a needle, experts are looking at whether a different type of brain scan might instead be used to detect amyloid...

Early Alzheimer's test possible

No matter how you slice it, puffing on a cigarette, or any other tobacco product for that matter, simply ups the ante for more health complications. Smoking causes nearly 1 in 5 deaths each year. About 8.6 million Americans suffer from smoking-related chronic conditions, including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and heart disease. Cancer The smoking-cancer link is well-known to most: Smoking causes at least 30% of all cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. Smoking increases the risk of at least 15 cancers, including those of the throat, nasal cavity, lip, mouth, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, cervix, kidney, bladder and stomach, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. Diabetes Diabetes and smoking don't mix. Tobacco use can elevate blood sugar levels and lead to insulin resistance, say experts at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The more you smoke, the bigger your risk: More than 20 cigarettes a day almost doubles smokers' risk of developing diabetes, compared with nonsmokers'. "People with diabetes already have higher cardiovascular risks," says David Kendall of the American Diabetes Association. Smoking "just adds to the burden of that risk." Heart Smoking's assault on the heart doubles or triples the risk of dying from coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the USA, the American Heart Association says. The toll is enormous: Each year, nearly 900,000 people die of coronary heart disease. That's because smoking narrows blood vessels supplying the heart and other parts of the body; it also promotes blood clotting, raises blood pressure and weakens the biggest artery in the abdomen, sometimes causing it to burst, a condition called abdominal aortic aneurysm, AHA says. Secondhand smoke kills 23,000 to 70,000 people prematurely each year. Pregnancy and childhood During pregnancy, smoking increases the risk of complications that can endanger a mother's life. It nearly doubles the risk of having a low-birth-weight baby and is a leading cause of preterm labor, the March of Dimes says. Smoking causes an estimated 910 infant deaths a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Babies who breathe in secondhand smoke are at increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, ear infections and other problems. Skin If you're going for a rosy glow, nix the smokes. "The nicotine in cigarettes causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the outermost layers of your skin," says internist Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic. "This impairs blood flow. ... Your skin doesn't get as much oxygen, an important nutrient." He says tobacco contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which can damage collagen and elastin, fibers that give skin its strength and elasticity. As a result, skin begins to sag and wrinkle prematurely. Quitting improves skin's health and appearance, says cosmetic dermatologist Hema Sundaram, author of Face Value. She says smoking also raises the risk of skin cancers, slows its healing rate and worsens hormonal imbalances during perimenopause and menopause.

Smoking isn't just bad for your lungs

Celebrities make the news when they aim to make Hollywood-standard weight by dieting to the extreme. While the Master Cleanse (really, Beyonce?) or coconut craze (yep, Jen) or the baby food diet linked to other celebs might work for them when they need to slim down fast for a multi-million-dollar action film role, most of us do not need to go that far. What we could use, however, is the motivation to cut back on those foods we already know aren't that healthy for us but we've been resisting giving up. Leave the detoxing to those people posing on the red carpet. Instead, release your grip just a little bit on these six foods that are keeping you from looking and feeling your best. Our nutrition experts explain how to get started. Diet soda You might think that your diet drink is saving you calories, but it might actually be costing you more. "Recent research suggests that diet soda may cause more food cravings," says professional sports nutritionist and author Mitzi Dulan, who recommends to all of her clients that they quit drinking all types of soda. Although kicking the can habit can be hard, it is not impossible. Cheryl Forberg, a registered dietitian and nutritionist for "The Biggest Loser," says most of her clients find it easier to subsist on less soda if they don't ignore the craving altogether. Forberg's tip? Replace diet cola with carbonated water flavored with a splash of fruit juice. Kiddie cereal Whether sitting down with a bowl heaped full of Lucky Charms keeps warm, fuzzy childhood memories alive for you or is your way of getting back at your mother for banning sugared cereals when you are a kid, you're well aware it's time for your breakfast (or dinner or midnight indulgence) to grow up. At least a little. "Gobbling a bowl of sugary cereal can cause your blood sugar to spike and then crash, leaving you feeling irritable or tired," says nutritionist, author, and "TODAY" show contributor Joy Bauer. "Plus, sugary cereals are typically low in fiber and not very filling, which means they’re easy to overeat. Not a great way to start off your day!" If you love them, Bauer suggests you enjoy a small bowl for dessert instead of breakfast. Then choose healthier cereals for your morning meal that have a whole grain as the first ingredient, have no more than eight grams of sugar per serving, and have at least three grams of fiber in each serving. Bauer recommends thoroughly reading the label for nutritional information and that most women stick to one serving of cereal, typically one cup, and that men and very active women eat no more than two. Energy Bars Energy bars are a convenient snack and can help fuel you through a long workout. But under the guise of being healthy, many people take their energy bar eating too far. "People shouldn’t use energy bars as a meal replacement unless you really have no other option," says Joanna Sayago Golub, a senior editor at Runner's World who covers nutrition and weight-loss issues. "In most cases, energy bars don’t provide enough calories for a full meal (especially if you’re very active and exercise a lot), and they certainly don’t provide a complete range of nutrients, meaning you may be getting too much of one type of vitamin or mineral while not enough of others." Energy bars also are not a good pre-workout snack, she notes, unless you plan to exercise for more than an hour. Golub says it's best to cut back gradually until you're only grabbing a bar as a snack occasionally. How can you power up your work day or workout without depending on energy bars? "The benefit of energy bars is that they’re convenient, so if you make other healthier choices just as convenient you won’t be as tempted to reach for the energy bar. So start stocking up on healthier snacks, and keep them in convenient locations—your office fridge, desk drawer, your car, or your gym bag," Golub advises. Minimally processed whole foods (think fruits, nuts, and whole grains) are always a healthier option than an energy bar, and a half of a turkey sandwich, carrots and hummus, or a banana with peanut butter are better sources of fuel no matter how active you are, she says. Fake sugar How easy it is to become a slave to the pink and the blue (and the yellow and the white). But even if you're careful not to put too many packets in coffee or tea, many people are still consuming large quantities of artificial sweetener that's stashed in products like chewing gum, canned goods, breads, ice cream, and soft drinks. "I typically advise no more than two artificially sweetened items per day," Bauer says, "and each packet of sweetener counts as one item." Bauer's tip to cut back on Equal, Splenda, and other sweeteners might seem radical to those who've had the habit for a long time, but she says it's effective. "If you feel like your sweet tooth is out of control, I recommend cutting all sugar—real and artificial—out of your diet for one week. It may sound really difficult, but many people who try this strategy tell me they feel so much better without artificial sweeteners in their diet. In fact, many decide to cut out artificial sweeteners permanently," Bauer reports. If you still need to cater to your cravings, Dulan says it's wiser to choose a natural sweetener like honey and stick to the rule that if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't put it in your mouth. Coffee We know, we know. This is the one you really don't want to hear. Going completely caffeine-free can be a painful process, but depending too much on coffee for energy can also mean you're not getting nearly enough nutrient-rich foods in your body. All the good stuff you add to your coffee -- cream, sugar, gobs of caramel -- carry a lot of calories and can erase the work you've done at the gym in a few sips. The happy medium, Dulan says, is to drink no more than two cups of coffee per day. She suggests slowly reducing your intake by a single cup each week until you get to that healthier place. Hydrating with a few extra glasses of water a day will help get you over the hump. Forberg also notes that you can replace coffee with black tea made creamier with lowfat or nonfat milk, or green tea, which will naturally kick up your metabolism. "White" foods Although we often hear that we shouldn't be eating white foods, many of us aren't sure what this entails. White foods are refined carbohydrates that are highly processed and have likely been stripped of their antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. This diminishes the food's natural nutritional value, leaving behind starch and calories. White foods include white bread, white pasta, white rice, and other products made of white flour, as well as potatoes and sugar. "White foods typically raise blood sugar and insulin levels more than whole-grain products, so they do a number on your insides," Bauer adds. This puts consumers at a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and obesity. There's no need to stop eating crackers or squishy bread completely. Rather, simply swap white foods for whole-grain pastas, breads, and cereals. When you're ready, add quinoa, oats, and wild rice into your diet and soon you won't even miss the white food culprits.

The diet foods that really aren't

Here are the details of why you should go ahead and eat the yolks, plus highlights of other food myths that just won’t die. Myth 1: Eggs are bad for your heart. The Truth: Eggs do contain a substantial amount of cholesterol in their yolks—about 211 mg per large egg. And yes, cholesterol is the fatty stuff in our blood that contributes to clogged arteries and heart attacks. But labeling eggs as “bad for your heart” is connecting the wrong dots, experts say. “Epidemiologic studies show that most healthy people can eat an egg a day without problems,” says Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D., R.D., distinguished professor of nutrition at Penn State University. For most of us the cholesterol we eat doesn’t have a huge impact on raising our blood cholesterol; the body simply compensates by manufacturing less cholesterol itself. Saturated and trans fats have much greater impact on raising blood cholesterol. And a large egg contains only 2 grams of saturated fat and no trans fats. The American Heart Association recommends limiting cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg daily—less than 200 mg if you have a history of heart problems or diabetes or are over 55 (women) or 45 (men). “That works out to less than an egg a day for this population—more like two eggs over the course of the week,” notes Kris-Etherton. Myth 2: High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is worse for you than sugar. The Truth: The idea that high-fructose corn syrup is any more harmful to your health than sugar is “one of those urban myths that sounds right but is basically wrong,” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group. The composition of high-fructose corn syrup is almost identical to table sugar or sucrose (55 percent fructose, 45 percent glucose and 50:50, respectively). Calorie-wise, HFCS is a dead ringer for sucrose. Studies show that HFCS and sucrose have very similar effects on blood levels of insulin, glucose, triglycerides and satiety hormones. In short, it seems to be no worse—but also no better—than sucrose, or table sugar. This controversy, say researchers, is distracting us from the more important issue: we’re eating too much of all sorts of sugars, from HFCS and sucrose to honey and molasses. The American Heart Association recently recommended that women consume no more than 100 calories a day in added sugars [6 teaspoons]; men, 150 calories [9 teaspoons]. Myth 3: A raw-food diet provides enzymes that are essential to healthy digestion. The Truth: “Raw foods are unprocessed so nothing’s taken away; you don’t get the nutrient losses that come with cooking,” says Brenda Davis, R.D., co-author of Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets (Book Publishing, 2010). But the claim by some raw-food advocates that eating raw boosts digestion by preserving “vital” plant enzymes, Davis explains, just doesn’t hold water. “Those enzymes are made for the survival of plants; for human health, they are not essential.” What about the claim by some raw-foodistas that our bodies have a limited lifetime supply of enzymes—and that by eating more foods with their enzymes intact, we’ll be able to spare our bodies from using up their supply? “The reality is that you don’t really have a finite number of enzymes; you’ll continue to make enzymes as long as you live,” says Davis. Enzymes are so vital to life, she adds, “the human body is actually quite efficient at producing them.” Myth 4: Your body can’t use the protein from beans unless you eat them with rice. The Truth: Proteins—which our bodies need to make everything from new muscle to hormones—are made up of different combinations of 20 amino acids. Thing is, our bodies can make only 11 of these amino acids; we must get the other nine from food. Animal-based protein-rich foods like eggs and meat provide all nine of these “essential” amino acids, but nearly all plant foods are low in at least one. Experts used to say that to get what your body needs to make proteins, you should pair plant-based foods with complementary sets of amino acids—like rice and beans. Now they know that you don’t have to eat those foods at the same meal. “If you get a variety of foods throughout the day, they all go into the ‘basket’ of amino acids that are available for the body to use,” says Winston J. Craig, Ph.D., R.D., nutrition department chair at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Myth 5: Microwaving zaps nutrients. The Truth: This is misguided thinking, says Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, Ph.D., R.D., professor of nutrition at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Whether you’re using a microwave, a charcoal grill or a solar-heated stove, “it’s the heat and the amount of time you’re cooking that affect nutrient losses, not the cooking method,” she says. “The longer and hotter you cook a food, the more you’ll lose certain heat- and water-sensitive nutrients, especially vitamin C and thiamin [a B vitamin].” Because microwave cooking often cooks foods more quickly, it can actually help to minimize nutrient losses. Myth 6: Radiation from microwaves creates dangerous compounds in your food. The Truth: “Radiation” might connote images of nuclear plants, but it simply refers to energy that travels in waves and spreads out as it goes. Microwaves, radio waves and the energy waves that we perceive as visual light all are forms of radiation. So, too, are X-rays and gamma rays—which do pose health concerns. But the microwaves used to cook foods are many, many times weaker than X-rays and gamma rays, says Robert Brackett, Ph.D., director of the National Center for Food Safety and Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology. And the types of changes that occur in microwaved food as it cooks are “from heat generated inside the food, not the microwaves themselves,” says Brackett. “Microwave cooking is really no different from any other cooking method that applies heat to food.” That said, microwaving in some plastics may leach compounds into your food, so take care to use only microwave-safe containers.

Six biggest lies about food busted

Good question. Is corn even good for you? Actually, it is, for two reasons. First, corn is a starchy vegetable, and like other starchy vegetables (potatoes, peas) it contains fiber—in this case 4 grams per 1 cup of kernels, which is about 1 large ear. Eating enough fiber is important for helping to prevent chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Research also suggests that consuming fiber-rich foods might boost weight loss by helping you to feel fuller after you eat. Second, like most other yellow and green vegetables, corn is a good source of lutein and zeaxanthin, compounds that help keep your eyes healthy as you age. So corn can be part of a healthy diet. And to answer another question that my friends asked: The corn that makes ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup is not the same corn you buy on the cob. (Find out if high-fructose corn syrup is really worse than sugar.) In fact, of the more than 94 million acres of corn grown in the U.S. in 2007, less than 1 percent of it was sweet corn, the kind that we eat. So support your local farmers and get it fresh from the field right now.

Is corn healthy or not?