Jamie Devlin

Cutting salt to a very low level has a metabolic consequence. When 152 healthy adults spent one week on a very low-salt diet and one week on a high-salt diet, insulin resistance was higher after the low-salt week, aldosterone was about six times higher and norepinephrine rose too. The body reads a sharp drop in salt as a stress and turns on hormones that work against insulin, so for a person eating mostly unprocessed food, salting it to taste is usually a better choice than chasing the lowest number possible.

It's never too late to build muscle, and some of the best proof comes from people in their 90s. Frail nursing home residents who averaged 90 years old did eight weeks of heavy strength training, and their strength nearly tripled on average, and their thigh muscle grew and their walking got faster too. Many people assume that past a certain age, losing muscle is just something to accept. I think that belief is one of the biggest obstacles to healthy aging, because strength is what keeps a person independent. Lift something heavy a few times a week at any age, and add weight as it gets easier.