Eating For Health

Google “blueberries and health” and you will see article after article about the health benefits of blueberries.   My sister sent me one titled, 7 Science-Backed Benefits of Blueberries .   Growing up I often went blueberry picking with my grandparents.      My grandmother then made blueberry muffins, blueberry pie and blueberry sauce.    Little did I know that wild blueberries were especially healthy.        What are some of the health benefits of blueberries?          Heart health:   Blueberries help lower your bad LDL cholesterol while increasing your good, HDL cholesterol.   Additionally, blueberries help lower your blood pressure.   The antioxidants in blueberries help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.   To read more about blueberries and heart health, go to Heart Health . Improve brain function :   Studies on older adults have found that eating blueberries everyday can help improve memory.   To read more about blueberries and brain health go to Brain Health .   Di

This week my husband showed me an interesting article in TIME, Can Taurine Slow Aging?   Who isn’t interested in slowing down father time?   Then my husband asked me if I knew what taurine was.   I said, “sure, it is an amino acid in some proteins.”   So, what does taurine have to do with slowing aging?   What foods have taurine?   Are there ways to increase taurine levels in your body besides eating certain foods? .   What is taurine? As noted in my blog, How can you add some high-quality protein foods to your day? , proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids.   Your body can make some amino acids but some you have to get from the foods you eat.   For babies taurine is an essential amino acid but adults can make the amino acid, taurine.      Taurine levels decline as you age. Although adults make taurine, the amount we make decreases substantially with age.   For example, in 60-year-old individuals, taurine levels are “only about one-third of those found in 5