10 ways to live to be 100

What are the secrets to longevity? Dr Maoshing Ni has an answer, or ten, in his new book

1. Take long walks for a longer life
Most centenarians walk for at least thirty minutes a day. Walking can considerably reduce risks of stroke and heart disease, according to research. It can also boost levels of good cholesterol.

2. Slim down with soup
Eat nutritious soup at least once a day. Low salt soup re-hydrates as it nourishes and flushes waste from your system. Lose more weight than those who eat the same number of calories but don't eat soup. Avoid canned soups which are loaded with salt and chemicals.

3. Drink pure filtered water
Hundreds of pollutants are regularly found in drinking water from various sources. Your safest bet is to use a wide-spectrum water filtration system.

4. Clean your fruit and vegies thoroughly
Scrub your produce in a mixture of salt and hot water to remove external layers of pesticides, fungicides and wax. Go for organic-grown produce whenever possible.

5. Speed up your metabolism
An amino acid ‘L-carnitine’ manufactured in your liver can promote fat loss, increase circulation to the brain and boost energy production in muscle cells. The following foods are rich in L-carnitine: meats, fish, poultry, wheat, avocado, milk and fermented soybeans.

6. Protect your eye-sight with spinach
Studies show that spinach really does help you see better. It contains special antioxidants that protect the eye from age-related macular degeneration.

7. Look and feel younger with nuts and seeds
A handful of nuts and seeds everyday is fantastic for improving circulation and muscle tone. They contain the amino acid ‘arginine’ which is useful in fighting heart disease, impotence, infertility and high blood pressure.

8. Eat more during the day and less at night
Research suggests that if you eat your daily protein and fat at breakfast you will have more energy and tend to lose weight. If however, you eat those same things at dinner time you might tend to gain weight, increase blood pressure and risk of heart disease.

9. Be a vegetarian on weekdays, a carnivore on weekends
Generally, vegetarians suffer fewer degenerative diseases than carnivores. For a perfectly healthy and balanced approach, limit your intake of red meat to only weekends.

10. Stimulate the brain with mental fitness
Fickle memory, diminishing concentration and slowed response time are caused by decreased blood flow to the brain and the loss of brain cells. To stimulate brain cell activity you could find new hobbies, learn new things and attempt cross-word puzzles.

(Source: Blackmores)