Land of surfing also produces great football players

That Hawaii is fertile ground for the National Football League is no surprise to local fans, who follow their favorite players’ ascension through high school, college and — for those most-gifted few — into the pros.

A study conducted by USA Football found that NFL teams fielded nine players from Hawaii during this season’s opening weekend, or one pro football player for every 151,145 Hawaii residents. That’s nearly twice the national average and enough to rank Hawaii 11th nationally in NFL players per capita for the 2013 season.

Louisiana was first, with 62 players, or one NFL player for every 73,119 people in that state.

Knowing that Hawaii fields so much elite talent turns our thoughts to those young athletes who are not quite so athletically gifted. Be careful out there, kids: There’s a higher-than-average chance that that defensive lineman staring you down is headed for the pros.

Eat healthy, walk around the block, live longer?

In case you’ve ever wondered about the value of a simple, healthful lifestyle, a new study has concluded that it could even be the key to slowing the effects of aging.

Researchers at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute found that more fruits and vegetables combined with moderate exercise and stress management over five years were shown for the first time to reverse signs of aging at the cellular level, as measured by the length of telo-meres, which are the ends of chromosomes linked to aging.

So if you needed any more motivation to start eating better and exercising more, consider that you might live longer, too.