​

Welcome to Eating Smart, a weekly newsletter – your gateway to transforming eating habits for a healthier and more vibrant life! Thank you for being here. If you enjoy the newsletter, please forward it to a lucky friend. And if this email was forwarded to you, secure your own subscription to a journey toward lasting vitality.

Hi Reader,

Do you want to have less fat and more muscle? It makes sense, considering that we associate a slender, muscular appearance with being:

1. More attractive and younger-looking
2. Stronger, more agile, better at sports
3. Healthier

But did you know there is also a strong link between your muscles and mental acuity as you age? A study involving nearly 1,500 adults 60 years and older examined how muscle mass, strength, physical activity, and cognitive function are related. Here's what they found:

1. Being physically strong and active is more important for mental acuity as we age than having lots of muscle. Both relative strength and variety of physical activities lead to better cognitive function.
2. Muscle gained through strength training is protective against age-related declines in mobility, metabolic health, and mental function.
3. Adding resistance training as a therapeutic intervention can help improve cognition later in life. It can also improve balance and stability in as little as six weeks of training, just two days a week, when specifically designed to incorporate a balance component.
4. Older adults who engage in resistance training improve muscle strength and quality. By the way, our muscles get stronger faster than they increase in size. Muscle growth is possible at any age, but it grows slightly slower as we age.
5. Muscle strength and muscle mass are not always directly related, especially as people get older. Many overweight people have more muscle than thin people, but their muscles are not the same quality and not as strong. How you gain muscle, through exercise or just by gaining weight, matters for your overall health and cognitive function.
   ​

In summary, staying physically active and maintaining muscle strength through activities like resistance or strength training can be crucial for overall health and cognitive function as you age.

​

Until next week, take care!

Olga