- A new study finds that to live longer, people need to eat healthy and exercise regularly.
- While a balanced diet and regular exercise independently have many health benefits, the study notes that the greatest reduction in mortality risk comes from a combination of diet and exercise.
- The findings indicate that even high levels of exercise cannot fully offset the damage of a poor diet.
A healthy diet cannot counteract the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, just as regular exercise cannot counteract poor eating habits.
A July 2022 study shows that exercise and a healthy diet can individually reduce your overall mortality risk, but the greatest risk reduction comes from doing both.
The results, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, show that those who exercise frequently and eat well have the lowest mortality risk. The study authors also point out that high levels of physical activity do not counteract the negative health effects of a poor diet.
According to the researchers, the findings highlight the importance of both a healthy diet and regular physical activity. “Adhering to both a quality diet and sufficient physical activity is important to optimally reduce the risk of all-cause mortality. [cardiovascular disease] CVD, and [adiposity-related] PDAR cancers,” the researchers wrote.
For the study, researchers evaluated health and exercise data from 346,627 people over the course of 11 years.
They tracked the amount of exercise each participant completed in an average week along with the intensity of their physical activity. The team also tracked the eating habits of the participants.
During the study window, 13,869 participants died: 2,650 from heart disease and 4,522 from adiposity-related cancers.
The research team found that any type of regular exercise was associated with a lower mortality risk, and those who ate well and exercised had the lowest risk of dying.
Furthermore, while exercise and diet are independently associated with lower mortality risk, high levels of exercise cannot. mitigate the damage of a poor diet.
“In our study, those who ate a poor-quality diet and were active still had a substantially lower mortality risk than those who ate a poor-quality diet and were inactive.” melody, MPH, PhD, lead author of the study and associate professor of health and medicine at the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, told Healthline. “It’s just that you had the maximum risk reduction by doing both things right.”
The findings suggest that to minimize overall mortality risk, people should eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly.
The study concluded that although health professionals around the world endorse adherence to both diet and exercise, sensational headlines and advertisements for certain exercise regimens “lure consumers into the idea of exercising to eat what they eat.” want” and thus have fueled a myth about “exercise faster than a bad diet”.
It is well known that diet and exercise can help prevent a variety of chronic diseases.
Being physically active can improve your brain health, reduce your risk of disease, and strengthen your bones and muscles, and a healthy diet it can increase your longevity, boost immunity and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
“Diet and exercise are critical to minimizing the chance of death from cardiovascular disease and many types of cancer,” said Dr. eric came, director of the Yale Cancer Center, chief physician of Smilow Cancer Hospital, and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). “Both exercise and following a healthy diet are beneficial in terms of other medical problems.”
However, because diet and exercise are closely interrelated, many people may believe that they can offset the effects of a poor diet by increasing the amount of exercise.
“The underlying scientific explanations are not completely clear, but the bottom line is that if people want to minimize their chance of dying from cardiovascular disease and many types of cancer, they need to watch their diet and exercise,” Winer said.
Ding said he was curious how physical activity mitigates the risks associated with a poor diet. After reviewing the literature, she said she found that previous research suggested intense exercise can offset short-term damage from poor eating, but there was minimal data on long-term effects.
“I wanted to know how diet and physical activity interact on long-term health outcomes,” Ding explained.
According to Winer, Ding’s study shows how important it is to do at least one thing right, whether it’s exercising regularly or eating right, in reducing mortality risk. But diet and exercise together are most helpful when it comes to reducing the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and many forms of cancer.
According to new research, a healthy diet and regular exercise can help reduce overall mortality risk, but the greatest risk reduction comes from doing both.
The study shows that people who exercise frequently and eat well have the lowest mortality risk and that even high levels of physical activity do not outweigh the negative health effects of a poor diet.
Remember that when it comes to making healthy lifestyle changes, it helps to try not to tackle too much at once. Winer recommends that people start with set modest goals — and when you reach that goal, you can set a new goal.
“We must remember that any reduction is good for public health,” added Ding.
.
