Don't Look Your Age! 5 Top Tips

Just like a great vacation, aging gracefully has as much to do with careful preparation as with what you do when you get there. Taking preventative measures now, including a combination of healthy diet, exercise and lifestyle habits can affect whether you look your age. In their latest book, "You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty" (Free Press, about $26), doctors Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (of "Oprah Winfrey Show" fame) teach us how to tap into the proverbial Fountain of Youth.

Here are just a few of the tips and tricks that these docs say are the keys to staying young:

How old are you, really?

While you know your calendar age (or could at least look it up on your driver's license), the biological age of your body might be years younger or older, depending on how you've maintained it. Knowing this, say Roizen and Mehmet, is the first step in understanding just how much work you have cut out for you. Find out your real age at www.RealAge.com.

Drink more.

Water, that is! In addition to aiding digestion, H20 helps fight hunger, bad breath, and ultimately helps add years to your life. How much is enough? While the docs don't necessarily tote the "8 - 8oz. glasses a day" rule, they agree that you should keep drinking water until your urine runs clear.

Take out the trash.

Stock your cupboards with healthy foods and get rid of the junk. Anything that contains the following within the first five ingredients on a nutrition label should find its way to the dumpster: saturated fat (including animal fat, palm or coconut oil), hydrogenated fat, primary omega-6 fat (corn oil or soybean oil), simple sugars (anything ending in -ose, such as fructose, sucrose, etc), sugar alcohols, syrups and anything made with non-whole grains.

Have fun in the sun.

Although it's well known that the suns powerful rays can cause extensive skin damage, they also provide beneficial doses of much-needed vitamin D. In fact, the doctors say that the vitamin actually decreases the risk of cancer! Unfortunately vitamin D is something most Americans just don't get enough of. They recommend getting your daily dose of D through up to 20 minutes of direct sunlight per day, combined with fortified foods and supplements. Those who are younger than sixty should get 80 IUs per day, while those over sixty should get 1,000 IUs per day.

Move that body.

It's no mystery that exercise is fundamental to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but according to Drs. Roizen and Oz, it can help you live longer too. And best of all, you needn't pay a pricey gym membership to get in shape, because they say YOU are the best gym in the world. Specifically, they recommend strength and stretch workouts combined with the 2,000 year old art of chi-gong.

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