Learning H.O.W. to Age™️ The First Piece of the Puzzle

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Staying mentally strong and flexible has never been more important. As our physical world narrows and adjusts to the manageable demands of our health and age, our mental world can remain open and strong. So, what is a multi-pronged approach we can begin right now, no matter our age?

The first and most accessible way is nutrition. The mediterranean approach and the dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) are two guides that have yielded positive results for prevention of dementia.

According to The Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/improve-brain-health-with-the-mind-diet/art-20454746 ),

a hybrid of the eating styles of The Mediterranean Diet and DASH diet , which researchers are calling the MIND diet has yielded positive results relating, in particular, to dementia.

More than just avoiding processed food, MIND highlights the H in H.O.W. : HONOR the past. Honoring our past as it relates to eating styles takes us back to the homegrown/locally grown, freshly prepared family meals that many of us were lucky enough to grow up with.

Fast food convenience has exacted a high price. Our health and wellbeing have suffered, but we have the evidence-based opportunity to change that.

Is that kind of comittment time consuming? Yes. The lack of free time most two income households have contributed to the demand for "fast food" and "time saving" processed, ready to eat meals. Consumers demanded it and the free market responded. Fifty-odd years later the market is readjusting and the cost/benefit analysis and health data reveal changes must be made. In order to survive, many fast food chains have begun to add healthier alternatives to their menus.

However, if approached individually, from the position of personal responsibility for your health, rather than pushing the responsibility onto someone or something else ( fast food chains, big government, etc.) this everything-old-is-new-again approach can become a "teachable" moment in the lives of busy young people and we all benefit.

Habits developed in the time crunching, money constraints of the first half of our lives need not become a continuing habit in the second half of our lives. For those of us entering or having fully entered the second half of life, we have the time available to us, we need only to make the commitment.

Information about the MIND diet is available at www.healthline.com, www.livescience.com, www.foodnetwork.com, among many others. There are also books available at https://www.amazon.com/theminddiet or your local book shop.

I will address approaches such as mental flexibility training, recovery-muscle engagement and nourishing our spirit and soul as part of a Learning H.O.W. to Age™️series over the next 6 weeks.