Moderately strenuous exercise, about 30 minutes a day, can lead to enormous benefits in terms of your mood, health, weight and the ability to live an independent and fulfilling life. The exercise doesn’t need to be athletic or difficult. Studies have shown that simply walking at a brisk pace for 30 minutes or more on most days can lead to significant health improvements. Add simple strengthening exercises two or three times a week and the benefits are even greater.

The January issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter lists some of the benefits of 30 minutes of exercise a day:

- Lower blood pressure: A reduction of 5 to 10 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) is possible. In some cases, that’s enough to prevent or reduce the need for blood pressure medications.

The difference between the plethora of weight loss propaganda and a true nutrition science based, health enhancing approach such as Team Diets is that the theory is simple but the implementation of a successful program takes considerable change, discipline, organization, and support.

Around age 50, even healthy older adults begin to experience mild declines in cognition, such as occasional memory lapses and reduced ability to pay attention. Convincing evidence shows that regular exercise contributes to healthy aging, but could the types of exercise a person does influence his or her cognitive fitness?

Angevaren and her colleagues at the University of Applied Sciences, in Utrecht, evaluated 11 randomized controlled trials, comprising about 670 adults ages 55 and older, which examined the effects of aerobic exercise on areas of cognition including cognitive processing speed, memory and attention.

Nine studies took place in the United States; one occurred in France and another in Sweden.

It is well known that research has provided evidence that physical activity and nutrition work together for better health. Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists have again reported on how the elderly also can engage in physical activity to improve quality of life.

In a recent study involving a group of 213 volunteers aged 70 to 89 years, the better the participants' adherence to a physical activity program, the greater their improvements in physical functioning. The study was led by physiologist Roger Fielding with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University, Boston, Mass. He is director of the center's Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Sarcopenia Laboratory.