The Age-Well Project

Change the way you age

Get our posts direct to your inbox

  • About The Age-Well Project
  • Books
    • Our Books
    • Reviews
    • References
  • Blog
  • Recipes
    • Recipes By Ingredient
    • Breakfast
    • Dessert
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Family
    • On The Go
    • Soups and Salads
    • Treats and Snacks
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Press

PLANNING FOR GOOD HEALTH AND BEETROOT HUMMUS

September 30, 2017 2 Comments

 

beetroot humus copy

Do you have a plan for the next 10 years? 20? 30? I have to admit I don’t, and I hadn’t given it a lot of thought until very recently. But last week a Masterclass entitled Life Doesn’t Stop at 50: How to Have a Fulfilling Third Act made me think about it A LOT. Led by life coaches Adrian and Judy Reith (@Act3Life), the seminar had a packed room of 50-somethings thinking about what actions we can take now to make our last decades as rewarding as possible. We spent the evening considering our key values in life and how they can be fulfilled as we age. And we thought about the control we have – or hope to have – over our ‘Third Act’. However busy we are now, with jobs, family, ageing parents and home life, there will come a time we have to make decisions about where we want to be, with whom and what we’re doing for the rest of our lives. We were encouraged to have a ‘realistically positive’ approach: mustering the resources at our disposal: money, health, relationships and communities among them, to make the best of the years to come.

Research shows that the more you plan, the more like you are to achieve your goals. A study of Harvard MBA students in the 1970s found that only 3% had clear, written goals for their future. 10 years on, the planners were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97% put together. (Doubtless, now, all Harvard MBA students have clear, written goals!).

Of course, at Kale & Cocoa it’s the health element of planning for the future which interests us most.  Is it possible to have a health plan for the future? It’s all very well to think ‘I hope I don’t get dementia/heart disease/arthritis/cancer as I age’. It’s another thing planning to try to reduce the risk (we know we can never eliminate that risk – it’s only about degrees of risk reduction). The Harvard stats quoted above show that just by planning, we are more likely to make things happen. ‘Health planning’ is a term used more in the field of public health policy, but I think we should all look to plan ahead for good health as individuals. Just as a runner plans their training for a marathon, increasing the miles each week, we should all make a ‘realistically positive’ plan for our ageing well in the years to come: how we intend to eat, exercise, sleep and socialise from now on. There’s a very basic planner available on WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Wellness-Plan which is a useful starting point in the process. Because, let’s face it, we all hope our latter years will be a marathon not a sprint.

In last week’s Times, Dame Joan Bakewell (a role model for positive ageing if ever I saw one) wrote about how important it is to be proactive in staying healthy, staying busy, making new friends and seeking new projects. She referenced Sarah Harper, professor of gerontology at the University of Oxford, who says that ‘old age’ should refer only to ‘that short period of frailty and dependency at the end of people’s lives’. Before that, we hope, there are many years of a well-planned, purposeful, healthy ‘third act’.

Something that is always in my plan for a healthful future is upping the amount of pulses and vegetables in my diet. This simple, seasonal hummus is a delicious, snack, starter of part of a meze platter. Try serving with pitta chips – snip wholemeal pittas into triangles, toss with olive oil and zaa’tar, then bake in a hot oven until crisp and browning.

BEETROOT HUMMUS (Serves 4)

  • 500g beetroot, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 400g can of chickpeas
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 125ml live natural yoghurt
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tbs fresh mint, finely chopped, for garnish
  • a few walnuts, crumbled
  • Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Drizzle the beetroot with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season well. Roast on an oven tray for 30-40mins until soft and starting to caramelise. Leave to cool, putting a few pieces aside for garnish.

Whizz the chickpeas, garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice, remaining olive oil and cooled beetroot to make a smooth hummus. Season to taste and serve with a scattering of herbs, walnuts and reserved beetroot pieces.

Susan

 

 

  • Ingredients: Beetroot, chickpeas
« GET THEE TO A FOREST (ON FOOT) AND HERBY COURGETTE/ZUCCHINI SOUP
THE POWER OF A NAP & VENISON WITH BLACKBERRY AND APPLE SAUCE »

Comments

  1. Nan says

    October 3, 2017 at 5:17 am

    Love the looks of these recipes (life and beetroot hummus)!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. what we need now: cold showers and warm recipes - The Age-Well Project says:
    October 6, 2019 at 8:00 pm

    […] Beetroot hummus: the colour is enough to cheer the greyest day […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Welcome to The Age-Well Project

Welcome to The Age-Well Project!
Here you’ll find easy changes for a longer, happier life. We’ve immersed ourselves in the science of longevity and distilled the research to make it work in our everyday lives. You can change the way you age: here’s how.

Favourite Posts

WHY I’VE THROWN OUT ALL MY BEAUTY PRODUCTS (nearly…)

Why Alzheimer’s Is A Women’s Issue

HOW HAVING A DOG CHANGED MY LIFE

GREEN SPACE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, SADNESS AND BRAIN-BOOSTING BISCUITS

WHY ‘INFLAMM-AGEING’ COULD START IN THE GUT AND HARISSA-ROASTED VEGETABLE SALAD

POLYAMINES – THE NEW SECRET WEAPON FOR AGEING WELL & MOROCCAN SPINACH AND CHICKPEAS.

THINNING AGEING HAIR – WARM CHICKEN LIVER SALAD

About The Age Well Project

This site is for anyone who wants to make the second half of their life as healthy, happy and disease-free as possible. Sign up to get the latest research on ageing – and delicious recipes to match – direct to your inbox.

agewellproject

⭐️Change the way you age
📚The Age-Well Project + Age-Well Plan ⭐️Get tips & recipes on our blog - sign up ⬇️

The Age-Well Project blog
Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock access to a sauna. But Susan found one in a hotel she was staying at recently, there’s one in our local gym and Annabel found plenty on her summer holiday in Finland. 

A growing number of studies attest to the longevity-enhancing benefits of routine forays into a sauna. Much of the research has been instigated in Finland where sauna (pronounced to rhyme with downer) has existed forever.

So how does sauna help us age well? The extreme heat activates heat shock proteins which researchers think can maintain the healthy functioning of our cells.  As we get older, the proteins in some of our cells start to misfold and collapse. They then clump together forming plaques, including the plaques thought to cause Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Heat shock proteins – triggered by a sauna stint and possibly by hot baths – appear to prevent the misfolding and collapsing of cellular proteins, as well as clearing out those that have already misfolded. Which is to say they keep our cells in good shape. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio 

#womenover50 #over50andfit #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalwomen #postmenopausalhealth 
#brainhealth #alzheimers #reducedementiarisk #cognitivehealth #betterbrainhealth #brainfog  #agewell #longevity #ageingwell #agingwell
Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You know we love a good grain and this one is particularly delicious. It’s from our friends @hodmedods and they very kindly gave us a discount code to share with you - it’s valid until the end of September. Code and recipe are on the blog - link in bio (it’s the blog post about reducing dementia risk) #prproduct #recipe #healthyrecipe #discountcode #wholegrains #quinoarecipes #womenover50 #over50 #over50health #postmenopause #over50andfit #dementiaprevention #alzheimers #brainhealth #cognition #agewell
Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the process of resolving it. Please do not respond to, or interact with, a request from our impersonator calling themselves theagewellproject. We are agewell project - no The! 

Thank you!
Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re s Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re so thrilled over 5000 of you have joined us on our mission to age well! Thank you 🙏

If you’re new here, we’re Susan and Annabel, long-time friends turned longevity writers. We started blogging about our quest to age well almost a decade ago (!) - you can find the blog at agewellproject.com or via the link in our bio. 

As working mums, we started looking for simple, science-backed ways to make the best of the second halves of our lives. We wanted to improve our own health and reduce our risk of the chronic conditions of ageing. When we started writing, Susan was caring for her mum, who had dementia, and Annabel has also faced challenges with her family’s health. 

Along the way, the blog became a best-selling book, The Age-Well Project, and further books have followed. You can find out more about us individually @annabelabbs and @susansaundershealth 

The blog is packed with posts on the latest research into the science of longevity, and how we make sense of it in our own lives. And there’s also loads of lovely age-well recipes - all approved by our families! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause
Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a b Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a bank holiday for us 🇬🇧🇬🇧), take time for your feet. They’re mini miracles and looking after them is key to ageing well. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio.

And save this as a reminder to look after your feet! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalhealth #walking #hiking #womenwhowalk #womenwhohike
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Contact Us

For any enquiries please email theagewellproject@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2023 The Age-Well Project