Healthy diet and exercise both are essential for a good and long life. Eating healthily and having a sedentary lifestyle is not right. At the same time, exercising a lot but not eating well can also do more harm than good. A balance of both is needed to live longer. A new study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine asserts these facts.
The study authors write:
“Sensationalized headlines and misleading advertisements for exercise regimens to lure consumers into the idea of working out to eat whatever they want have fueled circulation of the myth about exercise outrunning a bad diet,”
In the short term, burning out the calories gained by eating extra unhealthy and junk food is okay. But in the long term, this does not work. The unhealthy food can do more harm on the body. And also one cannot exercise so much to shed off the excess weight that one gains from the unhealthy food consumption.
Healthy diet (Source: Health line)The study details
The researchers studies 350000 people with median age of 57 years who were healthy at the start of the study. They tried to evaluate the independent and interactive effects of diet and exercise on all-cause mortality related to cardiovascular disease and cancer. The recruits for the study has a self-reported questionnaire. High-quality and healthy diet was defined as:
“at least four and a half cups of fruit and vegetables per day, two or more servings of fish per week, fewer than two servings of processed meats per week and no more than five servings of red meat per week.”
Exercise (Source: Help guide)The amount of physical activity each participant did was also jotted down. They were asked the time they spent walking per day. How much of moderate physical activity like steady-state cycling, light weights or vigorous physical activity of more than 10 minutes did they do per day?
The study results: Healthy diet and exercise
The results of the study were quite fascinating. It was seen that people who did regular exercise but also ate well had the least risk of mortality and morbidity. Their risk of all-cause mortality was 17% lesser than the others. Cancer risk death was 27% lesser and cardiovascular deaths were 19% lesser. The people who ate unhealthily and also did not exercise had the worst outcome. But those who ate well and did not exercise could not lower this risk. Dr. Ding who is the lead author of the study summarizes:
“Regardless of your diet, physical activity is important. And whatever your physical activity is, diet is important.”
The take-home message
Healthy diet and exercise power risk of all-cause death (Source: Practo)The study shows that focusing on one thing is not correct. Both healthy diet and exercise is vital to live longer and live a healthy life. Hence, the advice for those who go to the gym daily is to also keep a watch on your eating. Extreme diets and quick fixes are not healthy.
Also, read: Tom Cruise: Know his healthy diet and eating habits!
At the same time, those who eat well but live a passive non-active life should also focus on exercising daily. Only diet cannot protect a person from death or disease. 10-75 minutes of exercising per week is optimal. If you start exercising do not start vigorous or too fast. Go slow on it and start with light exercise before stepping up. Make it a regular thing in your life.