According to the American Dietetic Association, adding foods to the foods we usually eat can greatly increase our nutrient intake. For example, adding 3 ounces of canned wild salmon to a salad provides half the weekly recommendation of omega-3 fats, which improve brain and heart health. Adding 6 sprigs of parsley to pasta provides a day's supply of vitamin K, important for bone health. Adding 1 tablespoon of ketchup to a burger supplies a healthy dose of lycopene, an antioxidant that guards against various forms of cancer. It seems by adding foods we add to our health.

According to the American Cancer Society, people who stop smoking before age 50 cut their risk of dying in the next 15 years by 50%. Because people are trying to stop, 1 in 4 smokers in the U.S. is now an intermittent smoker - someone who doesn't smoke every day. That's a 40% increase in intermittent smokers in 5 years. Unfortunately, smoking just 1 to 4 cigarettes a day doubles the risk of heart disease; and all smoking increases the risk of stroke, blood clots and chronic bronchitis, as well as exposing smokers to over 50 causes of cancer. It's lives going up in smoke.

According to a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, healthy seniors who consume light to moderate amounts of alcohol reduce their chances of developing physical disabilities or dying in the next 5 years by 23% when compared to heavy drinkers or abstainers. In the study the seniors were over 50 years old. Light to moderate drinkers consumed fewer than 15 drinks a week, heavy drinkers consumed 15 or more drinks a week and abstainers consumed fewer than 12 drinks a year. Unfortunately, seniors not in good health received no benefits from alcohol - not even when they drank to their own health.

According to a study reported in the journal Neurology, 506 elderly volunteers without dementia were asked to fill out questionnaires about their personality traits and lifestyle and then were tracked for 6 years. Although 144 of them developed dementia during that time, the men and women who were more socially active and less stressed were 50% less likely to develop dementia than those who were isolated and prone to stress. An estimated 24 million people worldwide have dementia. Because researchers believe that number could quadruple by 2040, we should be proactive now about being socially active.