Try these 5 secrets to age-proof your body

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Secret #4: Stay lean with real food
Getting rid of the love handles is right up there with quitting smoking as a top way to stretch the healthy middle years into your 70s and 80s. With more than six out of every ten Americans now battling a weight problem, just dropping the pounds alone would add years to your life and life to your years. Even if you can't get down to an ideal body weight, people who are overweight would lower their risk for most age-related diseases and would extend those healthy years if they dropped 10% of their current body weight.

You'll find that weight loss is not that difficult if you just follow one simple rule: cut back on processed and fast foods and focus on real food. Processed foods not only pack on the pounds, but escalate the aging process. Numerous studies have found that the more processed and fast foods we eat, the heavier and sicker we are. Not surprisingly, every day that a person eats at a fast food restaurant, he or she consumes about 200 extra calories and increases the risk for obesity and age-related diseases. On the other hand, you automatically reduce calories when you base your diet on foods in their original form, such as oatmeal not granola bars, potatoes not french fries, 100% whole wheat bread instead of white bread and corn not corn chips.

Secret #5: Love those extracts!
Today some of my favorite indulgences, including red wine, tea and chocolate, are now considered as healthy as they are delicious. All three of these foods are extracts, which are condensed versions of antioxidant-rich plants, so it makes sense that they are concentrated sources of anti-aging phytochemicals called flavonoids.

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Chocolate: A recent report from Harvard School of Public Health concluded that people who consume chocolate on a regular basis have almost a 20% lower risk for heart disease. Feed people chocolate and their blood levels of antioxidants rise, their arteries become more elastic, blood clots dissolve and their risk for heart disease drops.

Wine: Red wine contains a slew of health-boosting, antioxidant-rich compounds, such as phenols, flavonoids and resveratrol, that protect arteries from inflammation and damage. Red wine has up to 20 times the antioxidants of white wine. These compounds prevent the bad cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, from being damaged by oxygen fragments. Damaged LDLs are most prone to sticking to artery walls, contributing to the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Wine and its antioxidants also might lower the risk for dementia and macular degeneration, a major cause of vision loss, and might even extend life. Resveratrol blocks cancer-causing substances.

Tea: Antioxidants in green tea are linked to a lowered risk of cancer, heart disease and numerous other age-related disorders. A recent study found that drinking green tea might delay loss of memory and appears to promote healthy aging of the brain.

The bottom line? When it comes to chocolate, it must contain at least 70% cocoa powder to do the trick. So, chocolate ice cream, milk chocolate or even chocolate cream-filled candies don't count. It must be the dark stuff! If you drink alcohol, switch to red wine, but don't go overboard! One glass a day for women and up to two glasses a day for men appears to maximize the benefits without increasing the health risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption. And green tea? Looks like the more you drink, the better — up to five cups a day.

Final word
I've mentioned five little diet steps to slow, stop and even reverse the aging process. But, keep in mind that there is no getting around it — you must exercise. You need some aerobic activity (such as brisk walking, jogging, swimming or biking) every day to burn fat and keep your heart in good shape, and strengthening activities (weight lifting) to maintain your muscles, even if it is just lifting milk jugs in the kitchen.

Finally, attitude makes a world of difference in how you age. It isn't much fun to prolong your life if you are going to be negative and crabby in the extra years. Every 100-year-old that I interviewed for my book was vital, vibrant and feisty. They told me to “never give up,” “always be good to people,” “be grateful for everything,” and even told me that you are only old when you start feeling sorry for yourself. So, the three parts that make up the anti-aging program are: eat well, move more and enjoy every minute!

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Try these 5 secrets to age-proof your body