A new study from Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found that women can dramatically reduce their chances of dying earlier by adopting simple diet lifestyle rules.

 

The key to a healthier and longer life is to eat healthily, exercise regularly, stop smoking and manage your weight.  The study shows that the more of these habits a woman adopts the lower her risk of diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Breaking each of these rules can increase the risk of cancer three fold; the risk of heart disease eight fold and the risk of dying young from any cause four fold. The research also indicated that more than half of women who die young could have lived longer if they took better care of their health.

 

Lifestyle studies in the past were often based on men but this one, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at the diet and lifestyle of 80,000 women aged between 34 and 59, who were healthy at the start of the research. Over the next 25 years around 9,000 women died – about 4,500 from cancer and 1,790 from heart disease. The study showed that being overweight increased the risk of death by 18 percent and being obese by 67 percent. Smoking up to 14 cigarettes a day increased the risk of death by 94 percent and smoking more than this had more than a two fold increase. Having one alcohol drink a day decreased the risk but more than this saw it increase.

 

Eating five portions of fruit and vegetable a day, one serving of nuts and cereal a day – and red meat less than twice a month – cut the risk of early death by 35 per cent. Women who exercised for up to two hours a week reduced the risk of death by 16 percent but this increased to 23 per cent if they exercised up to 3.5 hours a week.

 

This research proves without a doubt that simple diet and lifestyle changes can have a massive impact on reducing the risk of dying early.

Eggs have been in the news quite a lot recently with the nine egg a day diet – something I certainly would not recommend, by the way, as the key to a healthy diet is always balance and moderation. I would, however, recommend including eggs, preferably free range and organic in your diet on a regular, if not daily basis, especially as new research has suggested that eating two eggs a day may help you lose weight and cut cholesterol.

 

Previously, there was thought to be a direct link between cholesterol rich foods such as eggs and an increase in blood cholesterol levels which raises the risk of heart disease. But recent research from Surrey University published in the European Journal of Nutrition has found that those who ate two eggs a day while on a calorie restricted diet recommended by the British Heart Foundation not only lost weight but saw a reduction in their cholesterol levels. Experts believe eating eggs for breakfast contributes to weight loss by making people feel fuller for longer.

 

The research shows that there is no convincing evidence to suggest that there is a link between eggs and high cholesterol. In fact eggs make a nutritional contribution to a heart healthy diet. It is saturated fat found in pastry, processed meats, biscuits and cakes that is more responsible for raising blood cholesterol than cholesterol rich foods such as eggs, which are low in saturated fat.

 

Other recent research from Pennsylvania State University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that snacking on pistachio nuts twice a day can also lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Nuts, like pistachios, are thought to reduce the risk of a range of illness because they are high in immune boosting antioxidants.

Switching to a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables, whole grains and low in unhealthy fat and refined sugars for as little as three months or 12 weeks can boost your lifespan and protect against killer diseases.

For the first time a new study has shown the beneficial effects of healthy eating on the ageing process within the body. They believe that along with taking a daily vitamin and mineral and fish oil supplements, regular exercise and stress management people can reduce their cancer risk and the delay the ageing process. And the research team have called for urgent further research to discover just how powerful a factor diet and lifestyle is on overall health.

 

It is estimated that one in four women will develop cancer and rates are thought to increase with age. Although cancer risk can be linked to genes and the environment, researchers are now convinced that diet and exercise also play a crucial part. According to Cancer research, UK, approximately one in four of the 15,000 cancer deaths each year are connected to poor diet and resulting weight gain, but until now the link has been unclear. Previous studies that compared what people ate with their risk of illness were notoriously unreliable because most people can’t recall exactly or reliably what they eat. The latest research, however, from the Preventative Medicine Research Institute in California, published in The Lancet Oncology, looked at a new part of the human system that was not based on dietary surveys. It showed that cancer sufferers who switched to healthy eating saw a significant increase in an enzyme, called telomerase, which protects cells from damage.

 

The research supports existing studies that show there is a clear link between cell ageing and factors such as diet and stress.  In my opinion the findings of this latest study are of enormous significance and will help take science even closer to discovering exactly why and how diet is so important for our health and wellbeing.