Drinking in moderation, eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, exercising regularly and quitting smoking are four healthy habits that could add up to 14 years to your life according to Scientists at Cambridge University who are the first to look at a combination of healthy habits. The 11 year study published in the journal PLoS Medicine followed the health of 20,000 men and women aged over 45 and revealed that those who followed these four health habits were four times less likely to die than those who did not.

The study revealed that smoking had a bigger impact on health than diet, exercise and alcohol intake. The longest lived did not smoke, had an active job or exercised regularly for at least half an hour, drank one or two glass of alcohol and ate at least five portions of fruit and vegetables. An accompanying editorial in the journal added that if everyone in the UK adopted these four behaviours the public health impact would be substantial.

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