• Don’t skip breakfast and lunch to “save space” for the big meal. If you eat healthfully throughout the day, the food will be digested by time for dinner. Also, if you are hungry when you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner you will be more prone to eat fast which usually causes you to eat more.
  
  
• Wait a few minutes on that second helping. The first plate you just consumed is still making its way into your stomach. It may seem like you have more room in your stomach but you actually don’t. Enjoy the conversation for a bit. You may find that in 10 minutes you really don’t want the second helping after all.
  
  
• Start with the veggies. When you serve your plate, pile on the veggies first. Make the majority of your plate healthful and minimize the amounts of candied yams, stuffing and gravy that you serve yourself.
  
  
• Skip the bread. You don’t need rolls or cornbread. Thanksgiving meals are loaded with complex carbohydrates.
  

Dear Reader,

What do purpose and puzzles have in common? Both have been linked to a significantly decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The bottom line appears to be that keeping the brain actively engaged and challenged, coupled with a sense of purpose, can help ward off the devastating disease that affects more than five million Americans each year. In some cases the mental decline is sudden. In others the time between diagnosis and death can take more than a decade. The number of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients is expected to reach 16 million by 2050.

A recent study concluded that people who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those who don’t. The study, which appeared in this month’s issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, was conducted at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study concluded that “a purposeful personality” might somehow protect the brain, perhaps by increasing the neural connections that act as a reserve against mental decline.

“This adds to our knowledge that lifestyle, personality, how we think, feel and behave are very closely tied with the risk for this terrible illness,” said Robert Wilson, co-founder of the study. Titled the “Rush Memory and Aging Project,” the study included more than 700 elderly people who were an average of 80 years old. They underwent yearly testing to detect any mental declines. The participants were tested for up to five years and provided information about any current or past problems with their memory or thought processes. “It is likely”, Wilson said, “that mental inactivity is truly a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and not simply an early consequence of the disease”. The findings of this study underscore the importance of being mentally active in old age.

Previous studies have linked social connections and stimulating activities such as working puzzles with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s. There are thousands of books and DVDs on the market that claim to offer “brain-boosting” puzzles and games that will keep our brains sharper as we age.

Frequent participation in activities such as going to the library; visiting museums, listening to classical music and attending plays or concerts can make a big difference.  Activities that involve using mental processes are associated with a 60 percent decrease in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. A mentally inactive person in old age is 2.6 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than one who is mentally active, according to the study.

“Our results suggest that regardless of how mentally active people have been prior to old age, higher levels of mental activity in old age can reduce the risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia,” said Dr. Wilson. 

“The brain is like every other organ in the body,” noted Dr. Robert Friedland, a neurologist at the Case Western Reserve College in Cleveland. “When the brain is involved in learning the health and size and connectivity of neurons is greatly enhanced. Television is used way too frequently by most elderly people. Television represents an activity that is not often intellectual and is not physically challenging.”

Dear Reader,

As Americans become more and more savvy about natural ways to boost health and wellness, the organic food industry is enjoying unprecedented growth. According to the Organic Farming Research Foundation there are more than 11,000 certified organic producers in the U.S. today compared to 2500 in 1999.  About 70 percent of Americans buy organic food occasionally and nearly one quarter buy it every week, according to a recent survey conducted by the Hartman Group. 

While some buy organic to support its environmentally friendly practices, most are trying to cut their exposure to chemicals in the foods they eat. Studies have linked pesticides in our food to a host of health problems including headaches, miscarriage, birth defects, nervous system disorders and asthma. According to the National Academy of Sciences, chemical pesticides have the potential to cause an additional 1.4 million cases of cancer in this generation of Americans. 

To classify as organic, a food must have been grown without the use of harmful synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers and must be produced on a farmland that has been free of such chemicals for at least three years. Feeding the soil with organic matter instead of ammonia and other synthetic fertilizers has been proven to increase the nutrients in produce, resulting in foods with higher levels of vitamins and minerals. A study conducted at Rutgers University concluded that, on average, organically grown foods have an 87 percent higher concentration of magnesium, potassium, iron and copper. Organic tomatoes were found to yield 500 percent more calcium than conventionally produced tomatoes.

Organic foods generally cost more but they are well worth the extra money because of the higher nutritional value. Organic farmers don’t receive federal subsidies like traditional farmers; therefore the price of organic food reflects the true cost of growing. Organic farms tend to be smaller and more labor intensive. (Bear in mind that the price of conventional food does not reflect the cost of environmental cleanups that we pay for through our tax dollars.) 

Locally grown organic food is superior in terms of taste and freshness. Most produce in the U.S.  is picked up four to seven days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped from an average distance of 1500 miles before being sold. (And this applies only to U.S. grown produce. Much produce is imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America and other countries.) Do some research to find out where you can find locally grown produce in your area and resolve to eat more seasonably by supporting your local organic farmers market all year round.  Buying from your local farmers market has the added benefit of contributing to a sense of community.