By Christine Jean-Pierre

 CSMS Magazine Staff WriterFor sometimes, many of you have been asking for an acute recipe to deal with the problem of aging. While countless studies have already demonstrated that eating right and exercise will lead to a healthy lifestyle, growing old and looking young seem to be the toughest odd to beat. It appears there is hope. Christine Jean-Pierre, who is herself a nutritionist, participated last week in a seminar on food safety and good nutrition to keep you fit and keep the glow in your already-radiant face. In this article, she compiles a series of tips to guide YOU, our faithful reader, directly to the fountain of youth.       Many of us don’t even realize that we can spice up our diet to lower your blood pressure, fight cancer, and even look younger. As we get older and become wiser, we need to move away or substantially reduce the heavy diet. Remember we are what we eat, and if we keep on enjoying the same old greasy and fatty diet, we may cause a reduction of our lifespan. Experts agree that eating right has a lot to do with our state of mind, our self-confidence and, of course, our ability to stay young.              Many people think in order to keep a healthy lifestyle, one has to reach a certain economic standard. It is an old myth. Education is the key. It has long been known that certain spices, such as basil, oregano and garlic, will help you fight cancer, lower blood pressure and even maintain a healthy weight. That is not all! “Regularly sprinkling rosemary on your favorite dishes will fight aging and help you to look younger,” said Suzanna Zick, a naturopathic physician and researcher with the University of Michigan Health System.            Using more herbs and spices and fewer traditional seasonings like sugar, salt and fat, can help to improve the overall health benefits and also improve the flavor of the foods we eat every day.Bellow is what Suzanne Kick offers in order to help add a dash of “spice” to your life. 

• Instead of salt, use herbs. Common herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley and garlic can really bring out the natural flavors in a meal. Replace salt with a tasty combination of basil and oregano on food.
• Fight aging by eating foods seasoned with rosemary. Rosemary is one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants. It’s also thought to help with memory, and research is currently underway to determine rosemary’s potential cancer-prevention properties.
• Use fresh garlic for maximum benefit. Garlic appears to help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. “For maximum benefit, you need to have about three medium cloves of garlic per day,” says Zick.
• Basil, oregano and rosemary can help fight colds. Since these three herbs contain strong essential oils, Zick says they potentially can fight colds and flu. “All three are powerful antioxidants as well,” she notes.
• Treat chronic coughs with thyme. “The health benefits of thyme are unique. It has been traditionally used to treat coughs, even whooping cough. Thyme is often drunk as a tea,” she says.
• Have back pain? Eat curry. Research has shown that the substance commonly found in turmeric–a common, bright red spice added to curry mixes–has known anti-inflammatory properties. The substance, curcumin, works in a very similar way to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
• Fight cancer: Eat more curry. In addition to its anti-inflammatory properties, research on curcumin has also shown it to shrink pre-cancerous lesions known as colon polyps. Zick says the amount needed for its health benefits is unclear so she suggests including a generous helping of curry or turmeric in a meal.
• Lower your blood pressure with “warming spices.” These include ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, cayenne pepper and others. These can make a person feel warm because they bring blood from the center of the body to the skin. This disperses blood throughout the body more evenly, which may decrease blood pressure, according to Zick.
• Soothe your aching tummy with ginger. Ginger contains gingerols, which decrease oxidative products in the digestive tract that cause nausea. The key is to eat real ginger and not things flavored artificially, such as ginger ale, in order to reap the most benefits.
• Reduce the sugar, add the spice. If you need to cut back on sugar, Zick suggests adding spices like cinnamon and nutmeg to your sweet snacks instead of sugar. For instance, if you buy unsweetened applesauce, add cinnamon to give it an extra kick.

Also see Fighting obesity is crucial to a long and healthy life