If you worry about high cholesterol in your diet - chances are you have been avoiding eggs.

Well you need to stop and review your thinking.

Our mothers always told us eggs were a good food. In the UK a whole generation was brought up on the advertising slogan: “Go to work on an egg”.

And then came the cholesterol scare.

From the 1960’s onwards - doctors and scientists were telling us that cholesterol in food was responsible for fatty deposits in our arteries. The result - heart attack and early death.

And one of the villains of the piece were eggs - or more specifically egg yolks. Along with full fat milk - eggs became something to avoid at all costs. Fast forwarward to the present day and celebrities are ordering ‘egg white omelettes’ in restaurants as part of a low fat diet. Surely conclusive proof that this anti egg thing has gone too far.

Well now science has moved on. Much more is known about the complexities of cholesterol and good and bad fats in our diet. The conclusion is that the anti egg movement was largely a mistake. Eggs are actually a good source of protein and nutrients not easily found elsewhere in the modern diet.

The truth is that just because a food is high in cholesterol doesn’t mean that it has a bad impact on your blood cholesterol. According to recent research people eating an egg a day are no more likely to suffer heart disease than those who eat them much less or not at all.

What matters is that you keep your weight under control through exercise and that your total diet is full of nutrients and antioxidants from fruit and vegetables.

So - go ahead include eggs in your diet. Go to work on an egg if that’s your breakfast of choice. As long as you eat a balanced diet and make healthy lifestyle choices you’ll avoid high cholesterol levels.

At long last science is catching up with historical practice. For centuries - and in many cultures - honey has been used in folk medicine as a wound healer.

Now scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany have recently proved that honey can cure wounds infected with resistant bacteria in weeks.

The antiseptic effects of honey have been something of a mystery to the science world - until recently. Now it is known that bees produce an enzyme - glucose oxidase.

Its this enzyme in the honey that makes sure quantities of hydrogen peroxide (yes that’s bleach) are constantly formed from the sugar in the honey. Hydrogen peroxide is well known as a strong antiseptic and this is what gives honey its wound healing qualities.

Honey can do more than heal wounds when applied topically - it has the ability to increase the levels of antioxidants in your blood. Antioxidants are nature’s fighters of disease and hugely important for their anti-aging effects.

Nutrionists at the University of Illonois completed a study published in April 2006 suggesting that honey should replace sugar as the everyday sweetener of choice.

Studying a range of different colored honeys - all American produced - the researchers established that the antioxidant power of honey is equivalent to many fruit and vegetables.

Darker honeys were show to have the greatest antioxidant effect and the strongest antioxidant tested was buckwheat honey. Equivalent honeys from other parts of the world include manuka honey from New Zealand long renowned for its anti-bacterial and antiseptic properties.

With sugar consumption in America sky high and currently averaging almost three pounds per week each for every man, woman and child, the researchers were quick to see the potential.

After all if you were to substitute honey for all that sugar the contribution of its antioxidants might become substantial.

Energy, vitality and zest for life come from within - from a body and brain supplied with the essential nutrients needed for optimum performance.

Good nutrition is also vital for skin tone and muscle tone - every cell in your body needs essential nutrients to regenerate and repair. Eating the right things has a huge impact on the way your skin looks and how well it copes with the passing of time.

This part of the site is all about anti aging nutrition with the focus on good food eaten with enjoyment. Enjoying what you eat is such an important part of eating healthily.

You won’t find recommendations that you eat something just because its the latest anti aging wonder food.

On the other hand - there ARE articles on the glycemic index, the ORAC value of foods, trans fats and antioxidants - but written in straight forward English with practical tips to help you enjoy the best anti aging nutrition as part of your normal routine.

So start now - put the best food choices up there on your weekly shopping list - very soon you’ll find you enjoy what you eat, feel fantastic and look years younger!

The reasons why tomatoes are an anti-aging powerhouse can be summed up in one word - lycopene. Tomatoes contain more lycopene, one of the most powerful antioxidant vitamins known to man, than any other food stuff.

For antioxidants read anti aging. Lycopene belongs to the same family of chemicals as beta-carotene but is almost twice as powerful an antioxidant. Antioxidants are powerful neutralizers of the free radicals that often damage human cells, causing premature aging and many forms of cancer including lung, bladder, cervix and skin.

Lycopene also helps prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. What’s more, tests are currently being carried out to discover whether the lycopene in tomatoes can have a beneficial role in the fight against cancers of the digestive tract, breasts and prostate - and the results so far are looking very promising.

But it doesn’t stop there. Tests have shown that the lycopene in tomatoes can be more readily absorbed into the body when the fruit is processed into sauce, pulped into juice, or pressed into paste and ketchup. Lycopene in all these forms is absorbed up to four times more efficiently than from raw tomatoes.

It really doesnt matter how you eat your tomatoes fresh, tinned, frozen or cartoned - the good news is you still get the anti-aging and health benefits of lycopene. There certainly aren’t many foods that can claim health benefits no matter how they are processed!

Strangely enough, lycopene isn’t a necessary nutrient — our bodies function perfectly well without it — but even so, it does increase our chances of optimal health and longevity and the benefits of tomatoes shouldn’t be underestimated.

So next time your kids want to drown their fries in ketchup, instead of cringing, be happy that they’re offsetting some of the health dangers of fried foods with the lycopene in tomatoes. In fact, when tomato products are mixed with oil rich dishes, the assimilation from the digestive tract to the bloodstream is even greater!

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You may feel you already know enough about fat. We’ve all heard so much about monunsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fat in recent years. We probably just about sorted out which was which and what was good and bad for us.

We know monunsaturated and polyunsaturated are the “good” fats and we also know we need to keep our saturated fat as low as possible - especially as we get older.

But you may not know about the “new kid on the block” in the fat world - trans fat (short for trans fatty acids).

It’s ironic that the trans fat problem came out of the need to avoid too much saturated fat in our diets. Scientists and food manufacturers - in an attempt to give us the fat we craved and make it better for us - hit on the idea of taking perfectly good oils like soybean oil and partially hydrogenating them to use in food production.

Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process which makes an oil more solid; provides longer shelf life in baked products; longer use by dates for cooking oils, and gives foods an addictive kind of texture or “mouthfeel.”

The big problem - which no-one stopped to consider apparently - is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat. The result - hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the US and worldwide.

Top nutritionists at Harvard have recently stated: “By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually.”

The good news - if you live in the States - is that food labelling laws mean you can usually identify which food contains [tag-self]trans fat[/tag-self] and avoid it. If you want to live longer and healthier avoid anything with” trans fat” or “hydrogenated” fat on the label. In the UK supermarkets are starting to label trans fat in response to consumer anxiety and in some cases to eliminate trans fat from their product ranges completely.

It is actually quite amazing that an artificially created substance like trans fat which is so harmful to the human body is allowed in food at all. The quicker health authorities world-wide wake up to the damage this stuff is doing the better for all of us.

In the meantime - take action to protect yourself and your family and avoid trans fat wherever possible. Chances are you’ll look younger, feel better and live longer for it.

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Under a proposal offered for public comment, New York City restaurants would be given six months to switch to using oils, margarines and shortening with less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.

By the end of 18 months, all other food items would need to contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Restaurants serving pre-packaged food escape the ban however - they will be able to continue serviing food with higher levels of trans fat provided the food is still in the manufacturer’s original packaging when served.

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said: “New York City’s restaurants are the best in the world but they can be even healthier. Trans fat is artificially added to the foods we eat and is easily removed. To help combat heart disease, the number one killer in New York City, we are asking restaurants to voluntarily make an oil change and remove artificial trans fat from their kitchens. We are also urging food suppliers to provide products that are trans fat free.”

The public hearing on the initiatives - scheduled for October 30, 2006 - promises a lot of media attention and lively debate. Since trans fat is a major killer in the US and in all other countries eating an American style diet - it’s a shame the New York City authorities didn’t go further and try for a total ban. Still - at least it’s a start.

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Commenting on the results of the study which was undertaken at the University of Massachusetts, lead researcher on the project, Dr Thomas Shea, concluded: “This new study suggests that eating and drinking apples and apple juice, in conjunction with a balanced diet, can protect the brain from the effects of oxidative stress…There is something in apples and apple juice that protects brain cells in normal aging.”

The research was carried out on “senior” mice and showed that the group of mice given apple juice were fully protected from oxidative stress. Not only that but the “seniors” who consumed the human equivalent of 2-3 cups of apple juice - around 2-4 apples per day - had significantly higher levels of “mental acuity”.

“We believe that this effect is due to the apple’s naturally high level of antioxidants,” states Shea. Previous research at the University had demonstrated that it was the antioxidant levels rather than the sugar content of the fruit that was responsible for the increased sharpness.

Our view - more proof to add to the growing pile of favorable research showing the benefits of a high antioxidantdiet - and not just for “senior” mice either.

And when it comes to delivering anti aging goodness and tasting wonderful as well apples really can be classified as a superfood.

Of course the full benefits of the goodness in apples comes from eating or juicing the whole fruit. Apple juice is one of the most simple and delicious natural juices to make and works in combination with just about any other fruit.

If you really want to bump up the nutrient content - try combining one apple and two large carrots in a delicious juice with a great antioxidant kick.

After knocking that back you should just about be able to work out how you spot “mental acuity” in a mouse - senior or otherwise.

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The beneficial effects of juicing were observed in a 10-year study conducted by Vanderbilt University in Nashville using 1,800 Seattle seniors.

The research study showed that those who drank fresh fruit or vegetable juice three or more times per week were 76 percent less likely to develop alzheimer’s than those who only drank the juice once a week.

“Fruit and vegetable juices may play an important role in delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease” Qi Dai - author of the ten year research study

Polyphenols appear to be the source of the protection from alzheimer’s. Polyphenols are organic antioxidants found in high concentrations in freshly juiced fruit and vegetables and sometimes responsible for the strong color of the juices.

Juicing whole fruit and vegetables protects these powerful antioxidants and delivers them quickly to your bloodstream.

Because nearly all polyphenols are found in the skins of fruits and vegetables, only juices from whole fresh fruits or vegetables have powerful anti-Alzheimer’s properties, according to Dai.

Commercial sugar-laden juices with low juice content - the kind found in your local supermarket - definitely won’t offer the same protection as freshly juiced whole-fruit or vegetables.

Our view - get yourself a juicer if you haven’t got one already and start juicing. The beneficial effects of freshly juiced drinks extend far beyond protection from alzheimer’s - huge though that is.

Juicing is a powerful anti-aging strategy as well.  Some of the most powerful anti-aging antioxidants are present in fresh, highly colored fruit and vegetables. Not only that but fresh juices taste fantastic and how often can you say that about something that’s good for you?

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Although our bodies have evolved over the many millions of years that we’ve been present on the earth, human beings were designed to live only on raw, living foods. Is it surprising then, that when we compare ourselves with wild mammals who survive on a raw food diet, we’re far more prone to disease?

Unlike humans and their domestic pets - most mammals live to around eight times their maturation age. Compare that to our normal life span around four times our maturation age. While the prevalence of disease in humans and our expected lifespan isn’t purely down to our diet, there’s absolutely no doubt that raw foods are critical to anti-aging health.

Whenever you cook vegetables you destroy between 50-80% of their nutrient value. Cooking also alters the proteins in food to such an extent that they become difficult for the human gut to digest. Frying, high roasting and char-grilling are the worst - causing oxidization of food leading to the production of damaging free radicals which we then eat.

If you’re still not convinced that living foods are healthier consider the fact that enzymes are completely destroyed when any kind of food is heated above 118 degrees. Enzymes - as you probably know - are very important for health and longevity. They are vital to cell renewal and division without which our immune system is unable to function properly, energy levels drop and brain function is impeded.

Raw food on the other hand has powerful anti-aging properties. As we grow older, our bodies run out of natural enzymes so our cells stop dividing and renewing themselves.

This effects every organ in our bodies, from our internal organs to our skin, eyes and nails. Eating plenty of living foods replenishes these vital enzymes so your body is better equipped to continue the renewal process for much longer - keeping you looking and feeling younger.

You may be about to abandon this article thinking that you can’t possibly live off a diet of grated carrot, nuts and seeds - no matter what it does for your looks! No-one is advocating that so don’t worry. What you should aim for is increasing the amount of raw food you already eat - combining raw and cooked food in a healthy and delicious diet that will make you feel great and take years off the way you look.

Eating more raw food is easy and there are so many ways in which raw food can become a delicious part of your normal diet. Think about a fresh juiced drink for breakfast, a mid-morning smoothie, natural yoghurt with fruit berries as a desert, combined colorful salads with superb salad dressings, having raw sliced vegetables and delicious dips like guacamole as a starter, fresh tomato salsa with just about anything you like, basil pesto with fresh pasta - the list goes on and on.

If you like any of these things then you are already on the way to a good balance of raw and cooked foods in your diet. All you need to do is eat more of the raw!

Aim to eat something raw with every meal to boost your intake of key nutrients and preserve all their anti-aging power. You’ll soon look and feel better for it.

Acai berries are the hottest anti aging product around..

But you’ll only get them fresh if you move to the Amazon.  The fruit only last one day after they are harvested, so only Amazonian locals get to drink the acai berry juice like water - the rest of the world makes do with frozen Acai berry pulp as the basis for juices and smoothies or eaten just as it is - in dollops with yoghurt or muesli. 

It just might be worth considering a move to the Amazon - Acai berries are twice as potent as blueberries in the anti aging stakes, with an amazing concentration of antioxidants to help combat premature aging, relieve rheumatoid arthritis and prevent artery blockage. 

No wonder the Acai berry palms are know by the Amazonian locals as "the tree of life" and have become the latest must have anti aging health food for fashionable New Yorkers.

And if you’re thinking that something so good for you just has to taste awful and make you fat…apparently not.  The berries taste like blackberries with a hint of chocolate and they are low in calories too - a filling 50g serving has only 45 calories and 1 gram of fat.  And you can feel extra virtuous whilst you enjoy your new diet - according to environmentalists, the planting and propagation of Acai palms will help to save the rainforests.

Californian surfers the first to see the benefits of acai.. 

Acai (pronounced "ah-sah-yee") first hit the news a few years ago when the Californian surfing community adopted it as an energy boosting and delicious drink. 

Before that it had been a well kept secret of the Brazilians for whom it had almost become something of a national dish. 

Its not entirely clear where the buzz from acai comes from - but it definitely has brain stimulating qualities - described by aficionados as something like Red Bull but much, much better for you and infinitely more delicious in taste. 

Because of the fiber content a smoothie or granola muesli with acai is a fabulous start to the day and for most people will be enough to see them way past lunch.

Two hundred thousand liters a day and rising..

In the communities around the Amazon estuary where the Acai palms are grown the popularity of the acai berry has been a lifesaver of a different sort.  Many of the smaller farmers and growers have been saved from economic ruin and their families from starvation by the growth in the market. 

In these small communites, the Acai berry is picked, squeezed and drunk fresh - with every meal.  In the main town of the growing region a population of around 1.3 million people get through an amazing 200,000 litres of the purple liquid every single day.

Obviously, we can’t match that - but acai is now available from specialist importers as a frozen pulp for regular consumption. The whole world can now get some of the nutritional wonder that is the acai berry. 

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