I heard about RealAge from Newt Gingrich. Seriously, I did! Back in 2006, we won a US Chamber of Commerce Award for our Let’s Dish! stores in the mid-Atlantic and were named one of the top small businesses in the country. (We won again in 2007- how’s that for patting ourselves on the back!). Anyway, in 2006, Newt Gingrich was one of two keynote speakers for the event; Hillary Clinton was the other. They were both quite good, and indeed, despite their obviously different politics, they had recently worked together on some interesting health care initiatives and there seemed to be some degree of genuine fondness between them. But I digress…

Senator Clinton’s speech was pretty basic stump fare (she was already running for President, essentially). Speaker Gingrich’s talk was a whirlwind of ideas on a wide variety of topics. But he spent the most time on health care. And he had some interesting ideas for how we could improve it in this country. He praised the idea of HSA’s to bring consumer choice and decision making into healthcare. He advocated taking national a system that Jeb Bush had used in Florida in which drug prices were published on websites to make drug stores more competitive.  And finally, he argued for stronger personal involvement in our own health care– getting the facts, seeking data, and taking control of our own health. And that’s when he suggested that we all spend time on a website called RealAge, at www.RealAge.com. I jotted it down to look at it later.

And when I did look at RealAge, I loved it. The central premise is this: We all have an age in years (I’m 34, for example). But then we also have a “real” age, which is the age your reflected in your body and health based on the choices you make, the food you eat, the lifestyle you live. So, if I make lots of good choices, my “real age” could be 30 or 31 or even 27. If I’ve made some poor choices, my “real age” could be 38 or 40 or higher. (I’ll save my personal results for a future post, perhaps!). The idea, of course, is to have lower real ages– so one can be healthier, live longer, live better….and by extension for Speaker Gingrich, spend less on health care!

RealAge:  www.RealAge.com

RealAge.com gives you your real age following a survey that gets into all parts of your life: illnesses, family history, stress, diet, exercise, relationships, etc. Then, when it gives you your real age, it also gives you all sorts of hints and suggestions for lowering it and living better. Again, the suggestions run the gamut of the lifestyle factors. It’s not just a simple “eat less and exercise more” message (though, sadly, that is still part of it!). It was fascinating to do, and I found it very helpful to have some real data on how I was living and some objective analysis of what I could better. I printed out the assessment and still have copies in my desks at home and work.

One you do your assessment, you are part of the RealAge community. You can opt in to all sorts of groups and content. My main ongoing interaction with the company is a daily email to which I subscribe. It contains health tips, diet tips, family tips– all sorts of little useful bits of information. You get a digest version in the email and then you can click through for more. Very easy, very user friendly. I’ve learned a ton of cool stuff. My favorite tend to be little food/diet tricks.

Two quick examples:

1. I like to drink green tea with honey. RealAge taught me that the best kind of honey is dark buckwheat honey. It has more antioxidants than other forms of honey - you can read more about honey on RealAge.

2. My kids like apple juice. I try to cut it with water so they don’t get too much sugar. And I’d really prefer them to drink more milk and water. But the fact remains that kids like apple juice. Well, it turns out that some apple juice is better for them. Darker, cloudier apple juice (typically called “natural” or even just apple cider) is higher in antioxidants and phenols.  Here’s the page for the apple juice RealAge tip.  This is an easy one- they cost the same and are typically next to one another on the grocery shelf. So now I buy the healthier one for my kids.

I won’t give you more, but you get the idea. There is cool stuff like this every day. I was, of course, delighted that so many aspects of Let’s Dish! kept coming up– healthy foods, variety, portion control, family dinners, It’s a very nice fit with what we do. (I should note that RealAge does establish commercial relationships with various companies, many of which are online companies. We do not currently have any relationship with them, but it’s something I’ve considered.  I’d probably find it interesting because I think it could be valuable to our customers at Let’s Dish!)

Check it out– go to RealAge.com, take the test, think about the results and get the daily email. You are sure to learn something useful at least once a week, probably more. Even if you only use a fraction of the suggestions, you’ll still be better off.

Here’s to your (our!) health!

  
Related Link:
> For American Heart Month, here’s a RealAge post on heart health:  Hidden Heart Attack Signs in Women