Healthy Mind

MyPlate for Older Adults calls attention to the unique nutritional and physical activity needs associated with advancing years, emphasizing positive choices. It shows how older adults might follow a healthy dietary pattern that builds on the MyPlate graphic.

Following a DASH diet seems to also be good for your brain-not surprising, since cardiovascular health is linked to protecting your brain against strokes and dementia. The DASH regimen is high in fruits, vegetables, and grains, while cutting back on meat, saturated fat, sweets, and salt.

Timing and moderation allow you to enjoy coffee, tea and other caffeinated beverages without disturbing your slumber.

You feel stressed out. You are bored. Or you are angry at your spouse. So you walk a short distance to the fridge, swing open the door and look for a solution. Is it the leftover tapioca pudding? A slab of last nights lasagna? That pint of premium ice cream in the freezer?

With the holidays approaching, a new study in PLOS One reinforces the importance of staying a good distance away from festive food tables to help avoid overeating.

Walking may seem like a pretty simple activity. But, several different parts of your body are involved, like your heart, lungs, nerves, muscles and bones. So, your walking pace may slow if you're having a problem in one or more of these parts of the body.

People get headaches for many different reasons. Sometimes they may be triggered by what we eat or drink. Going too long without eating also may trigger headaches.

Could a sugary-drink habit - or the diet beverages you may consume instead - harm your brain? One recent study showed that regularly drinking sugary beverages, like soda and fruit drinks, was associated with signs of brain aging and declining memory.

You may not expect a mental health practitioner to prescribe a healthy eating plan, but that approach may not be far off. In recent years, scientists have been studying the link between food and mood more closely. They've found that there may be a relationship between the risk of common mental health issues - including depression and anxiety - and our diet quality.

Our reward center in the midbrain gets activated for the prospect of food and available food of a kind we like, so until our sensory-specific satiety mechanism tells us the portion size is sufficient, addictive chemicals are released, such as dopamine, to keep us eating.