Everyone wants to live an amazing life, isn’t it? As we grow, we nurture dreams and are always on the mode to fulfill them in this lifetime of ours. To live the life we all dream of, to fulfill all those dreams– our aim is to lead a healthy and a longer life, isn’t it? Health is all that matters for us to live longer in a good state. And ask anybody how can one live longer? Almost everybody’s answer would be – lead a healthy lifestyle! And how does one achieve the habit of sticking to a healthy lifestyle? By eating a diet made of whole, natural foods and sticking to an active lifestyle.
And we’re not just saying this out of nowhere. We are saying this because right now, even science backs it! We can feel your clueless eyes trying to understand what it’s reading. Well, read on to know more.
We are often told that the only way to ensure that you are leading a healthier lifestyle is by exercising regularly and avoiding drinking alcohol or even smoking. Several studies have said that a proper healthy diet actually increases your life by 10 years or more depending on person to person.
What the study says
The young population of the United States of America changed their western style diet towards a diet that includes only whole grains, legumes, and nuts — the probably could add a whopping decade to their entire life expectancy. This applies to not just a young adult population but also for those who are older, their lives can get lengthy stuff there is something called as a food modelling calculator, it is used to estimate approximate life expectancy with the different variety of dietary choices, and researchers found the results of the kind of foods that we choose specifically for example, avoiding processed meat or red meat had great positive effects for both women and men.
The results of the study
According to this research the category that saw the largest gain in terms of life expectancy was the kind of people who chose eating more legumes which essentially includes foods like lentils, peas, and beans. All of these choices have incredible nutritional advantages like there is quality protein, soluble fibre, and even micro nutrients like calcium, zinc, and iron. This whole food also contains something called resistant starches which helps in regulating blood sugar levels.
Very recent research says that any western diet which includes lower quantities of vegetables and fruits, large portions, high calories, huge amounts of saturated and trans fats, and excess sugar is known to lead to a downfall in terms of life expectancy. The Takeaway that we need to look upon after going through this research is that positive diet changes can have an incredible impact on not just your existing health at the present but also throughout your life as well. It has the capability of increasing how long you can live happily. This applies for older people as well, however the gains are smaller but very much substantial.
Important pivot
There is this urge of national effort to address the problem of life expectancy on an urgent level considering that the population of the United States of America seem to be heading in the wrong direction at the moment. The Centers for disease prevention and control stated in the year 2020 that life expectancy at the level of birth in the United States of America has declined by almost 1.5 years from the year 2019 to 2020. The factors that have led to this decline or increase in the number of drug overdoses, unintentional injuries and accidents, homicide, cirrhosis, chronic liver diseases, and much more. The report also says that this drop is the largest life expectancy drop that the US has witnessed since the inception of World War II when life expectancy had dropped by almost 3 years between the years 1942 and 1943.
Making the shift
All the changes in the diet will not directly impact problems such as nutritional shifts or accidents or drug overdoses but it can have a significant positive effect on certain chronic diseases such as liver disease or diabetes.
Liver disease and diabetes are known to be the most common lifestyle related health conditions because they all have genetic components that can actually be managed. In certain cases, these conditions can also be reversed through simple modifications like eating nutritious food. Especially in the problem of the liver, lifestyle changes result in a huge positive difference. Good nutrition and regular exercising coupled with avoiding adulterated food and excess sugar benefit or liver health majorly. Over consumption of added sugars directly leads to a fatty liver disease and then it gets tied up to other metabolic health related problems as well. Another issue that leads to liver disease is a sedentary lifestyle. In the US according to a 2019 report, sedentary behavior was at an all-time high since the last 15 years and it has been directly associated with an increase in the number of diseases and also decrease in the mortality rate. And the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus only worsened the situation especially for younger adults. Physical activity plays a major role in protecting your liver and also maintaining your health. Your mental health gets a major boost when it comes to exercising which is very important if you want to stay on track to lifestyle changes.