Looks like Mom was right. Broccoli and cauliflower are good for you. According to a recent review, they’re key ingredients in an eating plan – called the epigenetics diet – designed to fend off cancer.

The epigenetics diet also includes soybeans, red grapes and green tea, foods with active ingredients that influence genes involved in the cancer process.

While genetics is the study of inherited genes, epigenetics looks at changes in the activity of genes. Epigenetics investigates how environmental agents – including the foods you eat – influence which genes are turned on or off.

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It’s cold outside. And as the temperature dips, many New Yorkers head indoors to work out, trading the soupy city streets for a treadmill or stationary bike. And that’s where many of us encounter a puzzling (and often dated-looking) diagram pointing out the so-called “fat-burning zone.”

The reason it’s plastered all over the gym? Proponents of the zone argue that it represents a kind of exercise sweet spot-typically between 60 and 70 percent of our maximum heart rate-in which our bodies burn the most fat.

So should we buy into the idea?

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Newly-single Justin Timberlake was spotted enjoying a date with actress Olivia Wilde over the weekend.

The pair partied together at Los Angeles celebrity haunt Roxbury on Saturday night, causing a buzz among clubbers.

The rumoured new couple wore matching outfits – white T-shirts and jeans – on the night out.

Timberlake, 30, who recently broke up with long-time girlfriend Jessica Biel was said to have been ‘dancing all night’ with the House star.

Wilde last month filed for divorce from her husband Tao Ruspoli, an Italian prince, after eight years of marriage.

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It was her Legally Blonde character Elle Woods’ favourite colour and it seems Reese Witherspoon is rather fond of pink too.

The second-time bride, 35, chose the shade for her wedding to talent agent Jim Toth, 40, which was held at her ranch in Ojai, California, on March 26.

Monique Lhuillier designed the gown which featured a fitted corset top, sash and A-line tulle skirt.

Miss Witherspoon’s 11-year-old daughter Ava wore a dress by the same label as she performed maid of honour duties.

The groom and the actress’ son Deacon, seven, who was the ring bearer, both wore Rag & Bone suits.

The ceremony, according to one guest, was indeed a family affair.

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Coffee with fatty diet pushes blood sugar levels up 65 per cent

Drinking coffee after a high-fat meal can raise your blood sugar to potentially harmful levels, a study has found.

Not only are blood sugar levels increased after a fatty meal, but the rise doubles if the meal is followed by caffeinated coffee, researchers discovered.

The study used a specially prepared drink containing molecules of fat, known as lipids, enabling researchers to mimic what happens to the body when fat is ingested.

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You burn additional calories after a workout session without even trying — which is sort of like a buy one, get one free deal at the supermarket. This concept of continuing to burn extra calories long after you’ve left the gym is called “afterburn.” The amount of calories you burn depends on how long and how hard you work out in the first place.

You’re likely to get the greatest afterburn from a long, hard weight-training workout. In one study, fit men who completed a super-high intensity, 90-minute strength workout, performing 60 sets with little rest in between, experienced an 11 percent metabolism increase for about two hours after the workout. The next morning, 15 hours after the workout, their metabolism was still elevated by a substantial 9 percent, which translated into about 150 extra calories burned. While these numbers are impressive, the workouts were far longer and more strenuous than most people can handle or tolerate on a regular basis without injury or burnout. During a more typical workout — say, three sets of ten exercises — researchers say a generous guesstimate for afterburn add up to no more than 50 to 75 calories total.

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It’s arguably the healthiest diet in the world. The Mediterranean diet – which emphasizes fruit and vegetables, grains, nuts and olive oil – is recognized as the gold standard for promoting good health.

The diet helps guard against heart disease, certain cancers, obesity, diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. And it’s been shown to increase life expectancy.

Now, after reviewing 50 studies conducted on more than 500,000 people, researchers say the diet substantially lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome and is highly protective against all the risk factors that cause the disorder.

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In 79 fabulous years, she looked death in the eye countless times and lived to tell the tale.

But yesterday, after a life as dramatic as any movie script, Elizabeth Taylor’s battle was over.

She died of heart failure in hospital, with her four children at her side. And when the New York Times paid tribute to Hollywood’s last movie goddess, it had to admit that Miss Taylor had actually outlived the obituary writer by six years.

The Oscar-winning actress spent the final six weeks of her life at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. She had been admitted after her weight plummeted to less than 98lb and the heart failure diagnosed in 2004 threatened to overwhelm her.

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If you read this column, it’s likely you have a lot in common with Julia Roberts. She’s over 40 (42), she’s incredibly busy, and she’s got a bunch of kids. Her metabolism is slowing just like the rest of ours, and after two pregnancies, her shape doesn’t bounce back as fast as it might have a decade ago. Still, she’s got a body a 30-year-old would kill for.

To find out how she does it, I spoke with her trainer, Kathy Kaehler. “Julia likes step aerobics so to modify her workout in her 40s, I ramped up the intensity by adding two-pound dumbbells,” she said. “The extra weight pushes her heart to work harder so she burns more calories in the same amount of time — and the resistance helps maintain muscle in her upper body. It also helps that for all the years I have known Julia, whether I am working with her or not, she finds the time to make exercise a priority.”

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A drug to treat diabetes, Actos, would be a “sensible alternative” to one which was banned last year, researchers have said.

Avandia, also known as rosiglitazone, was suspended by authorities in Europe, but is still available in the United States and Canada.

The study published on the BMJ website said patients taking Actos had fewer heart problems.

Diabetes UK said Actos was a very effective treatment.

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