Live long and healthy

Too much visceral fat means an overabundance of inflammatory substances, leading to chronic inflammation—a condition that’s been connected to diabetes, cancer, depression, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.

AMPK enhances your metabolism is by stimulating the creation of more mitochondria, a process called mitochondrial biogenesis. Having more mitochondria is generally considered a good thing, and we know this because chronic disuse of muscle, sedentary behavior, and aging each independently result in a decline in mitochondrial content and function.

More than any other tactical domain we discuss in this book, exercise has the greatest power to determine how you will live out the rest of your life. There are reams of data supporting the notion that even a fairly minimal amount of exercise can lengthen your life by several years. It delays the onset of chronic diseases, pretty much across the bo

Sometimes when you listen closely to your body, the message you hear is a call not for food, but for fasting. You may observe this in animals, which abstain from food when sick, and in young children, who sometimes go days eating hardly anything at all (much to the consternation of their parents!).

So, what exactly happens to your body when you increase your daily step count? A single afternoon stroll can improve your mood

and ease symptoms of anxiety and depression. Walking, especially at a brisk pace, is thought to trigger the release of pain-relieving endorphins and curb the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Within weeks of adding mor

When you truly see yourself as a healthy person, your habits will reflect this. You’ll choose the side salad over fries without even having to think about it.

This takes time, but there’s a lot we can do to speed up the process and set ourselves up for success.

Flavors and odors are themselves a kind of food, just as important as protein and vitamins. When you eat inattentively, you miss out on these subtle nutrients. When you become aesthetically malnourished in this way, your body, craving more flavors, drives you to eat more and more food, and foods with stronger and stronger flavors. To put it in simp