⭑ Anthocyanins - antioxidants, antimicrobial ✔ do this to boost their effectiveness
⭑ Give your neurological health a boost by walking backward ✔ make it a habit
⭑ Our perception of time speeds up as we age ✔ you can slow it down
⭑ Is this the best daily exercise for mobility ✔ it could be, try it

All strength to Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Hello,

​

Doing.

By chance, the four items in today's newsletter are all things that I do and from which I benefit.

It's not entirely chance as these ideas are preprogrammed to stand out to me. That's also not entirely true, as I only read about item #1 this week and started doing it.

When I see something like item #1, I think, "Wow, I should have been doing this years ago". Mind you, it wasn't that I found this revelation writ large.

While researching anthocyanins I dug into their bioavailability. While examining the bioavailability data I noticed a small mention of fats. When I then dug into anthocyanins + bioavailability + fats I found the "revelation".

You can significantly boost the lifespan benefits from dark-coloured fruits and vegetables — see item #1.

Experts regard walking backward as a reset - a way to profoundly benefit your nervous system — see item #2.

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01 How to Boost Absorption of Berry Goodness

Anthocyanins are natural substances found in dark-coloured fruits and vegetables. They help prevent and treat Metabolic Syndrome and its related health issues, e.g., high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels, which together increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

⇒ Pairing anthocyanin-rich foods with healthy fats significantly boosts anthocyanin absorption in the gut.

Why? Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments, and their bioavailability can be somewhat limited due to their rapid metabolism in the stomach. However, the presence of dietary fats slows their absorption in the stomach and facilitates them reaching the small intestine.

Because fats are digested slowly, this prolongs the presence of anthocyanins in the intestine, increasing the chances that more of them are absorbed rather than being excreted.

What this means for you: By including foods rich in anthocyanins in your diet you are taking a proactive step towards maintaining your health and longevity. Here's how:

1. Salads: Incorporate anthocyanin-rich berries like blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries in salads. Dress with vinaigrettes made from olive oil, which not only enhances flavour but also aids in the absorption of the anthocyanins.
2. Smoothies: Blend a mix of anthocyanin-rich fruits such as cherries and blackcurrants with sources of healthy fats like avocado or a spoonful of nut butter. This not only makes the smoothie creamy and delicious but also helps your body absorb more anthocyanins.
3. Desserts: Prepare desserts that combine fruits and nuts. For example, a berry and walnut crumble tastes great and, due to the healthy fats in the nuts, improves anthocyanin absorption.
4. Yogurt Mixes: Add a handful of red grapes or blueberries to a bowl of yogurt topped with seeds like flaxseeds or chia seeds, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids. The fats in the seeds will aid in absorbing the anthocyanins from the berries.

Related: Vitamin K Keeps Our Brain 11 Years Younger - Study​

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02 Why Backward Walking "Factory Resets" Our Brain and Body

Regular readers will know that I promote walking backward. I learnt just this week that some "old time" running coaches advocated athletes sprinting backwards in order to pack their body with a new level of power in their quads, hips, glutes, calves, lower back and more.

According to the widely recognised callisthenics expert Matt Furey, backward walking and sprinting can profoundly benefit your nervous system, resulting in enhanced levels of calmness and focus. This is likened to a factory reset.

A factory reset in health fitness includes strategies intended to enhance metabolic health, break from previous unhealthy patterns, or kick start a new phase in your health journey.

⇒ Think of it as a reset that positively shocks your physical and neurological health and rejuvenates your overall fitness and mobility systems.

What does this mean for you? You know how to walk backward. Here are three compelling reasons that you should consider hitting this "factory reset" button:

• Enhanced Cognitive Function: Walking backward is not a routine activity for most people and requires greater concentration and neural input than walking forward. This forces your brain to remain active and engaged, improving neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections.
• Improved Balance and Coordination: Walking backward forces your body to enhance proprioceptive sensitivity - the sense of position, movement, and equilibrium. It develops a different set of muscles and coordination than walking forward, aiding overall balance and muscle symmetry, which are crucial for preventing falls and maintaining mobility.
• Muscle Strengthening and Joint Health: Walking backward stimulates muscle groups not as prominently engaged during forward walking, such as the calves, quadriceps, and gluteus muscles. This supports joint health by promoting a range of motion and strengthening the muscles around the joints, which helps to stabilise and protect them.

⇒ By walking backward regularly you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Just make sure that you can do it safely without any risk of tripping. I often do it where I can rest one hand on a side rail.

See this really informative video explaining the mechanics of backwards walking.

Related: Walking Backwards Benefits So Much More Than Your Knees ...​​​​​​

@Medium - Follow me on Medium ↗, covering ⭑food, ⭑brain, ⭑body, ⭑life

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03 Why Does Time Speed Up As We Age?

Time seems to speed up as we age, which is understandable if we consider the ratio of a period of time to our overall lifespan. A week feels like forever for a child but is fleeting as we age.

Neuroscientists have identified other reasons that time speeds up.

Apparently, our brains tend to compress similar experiences into a blur when looking back at them, making time seem to fly by. This applies to memories, experiences and images.

Time tends to blend memories together, leading to the feeling that it passes quickly. Conversely, diverse experiences create a rich tapestry of memories, elongating our sense of time.

Children absorb numerous new images daily, making time seem stretched out. Conversely, as adults, we receive fewer new inputs, leading to the sensation that time moves faster.

Novel experiences create distinct memories that make time feel more expansive. This is why introducing new activities and breaking out routines can help stretch our perception of time.

⇒ Absorbing new experiences and images impacts our perception of time, with fewer being received as adults, contributing to our feeling that time flies by.

What this means for you: Make the most of being curious, active and social, it will bring back the fullness of time to your brain and thinking:

1. Engage in new activities or hobbies. Step out of your comfort zone and try new things to disrupt monotony and make time feel more abundant.
2. Seek out diverse experiences and adventures to enrich your memory bank and create a sense of having more time. Step out of your comfort zone and try new things to disrupt monotony and make time feel more abundant.
3. Stay present in the moment to stretch your perception of time. Focus on one task at a time to fully immerse yourself in the experience.
4. Make the most of every moment by being fully engaged in your experiences and savouring them as they unfold.

⇒ Make each year feel more fulfilling and expansive. Time is a precious gift – make the most of it.

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04 The Best Single Exercise To Do Daily - Perhaps

Our exercise of the week is... the Windmill Twist.

In their enthusiasm, CNN declares this to be the "best single exercise to do daily to enhance mobility". It's not, because no one exercise is. However, it is a fabulous daily exercise.

Regularly performing the Windmill Twist improves your flexibility, particularly in the hamstrings and lower back, where many people experience stiffness and reduced mobility.

The twisting motion engages the core muscles, including the obliques, crucial for overall stability and balance. Maintaining balance during the twists helps enhance proprioception, the body's ability to perceive its position in space (essential for preventing falls).

⇒ In my experience, the best single exercise for any purpose is the one that you will do consistently.

What this means for you: This is how the Windmill Twist goes:

• Come down into a squat,
• Take your left hand to your left shin,
• Reach your right arm forward,
• Inhale, rotate that right arm up and straighten only your right leg so your left leg stays bent,

You will feel a stretch through your hamstrings, the back of your right arm, and your lower back on the right side. The rotation upwards opens your chest and shoulders and gives you a healthy back rotation.

• Focus on getting a stretch through your hamstrings and low back,
• Hold the position for 3 to 5 breaths,
• Repeat the exercise on both sides.

You can do the Windmill Twist every day, especially to start your day and to loosen up before bed.

See THIS VIDEO from CNN.​​​​

Thanks for reading!

P.S. If you are not yet subscribed to my free exercise app, try now ↓↓↓ Free forever. Opt-out any time. Opt-in by CLICKING HERE PLEASE SEND ME THE EXERCISES. NOTE: YOU ONLY NEED TO SUBSCRIBE ONE TIME.

>> My Latest Blog Post: Energise Your Golden Years: Boosting Your Desire to Exercise with Gut-Healthy Foods​

About the newsletter: Do you think it can be improved? Have a story idea? Want to share about the time you met Chris Hemsworth, or your questions about how to live longer better? Send those thoughts and more to me at walter@bodyagebuster.com

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