If you’ve wondered if exercise is really as important as touted by health professionals, now comes more proof. A report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in January 2015 found exercise can help prevent premature death.
For couch-potatoes who want to continue to live an inactive lifestyle, this study is bad news. Almost everyone knows the perils of smoking and the effects of obesity on health. Recent evidence from a twelve-year study of more than 300,000 European men and women support reasons to get up and move. Even twenty minutes of brisk walking per day may reduce by thirty percent the risks of dying prematurely. Other studies in Asia have found that fifteen minutes per day of mild exercise improved longevity by nearly fifteen percent. These levels of activity are less than public health recommendations.
If you are one of those trim and slim or you are just a little overweight, that’s no cause for smugness. The most striking results of increased physical activity occurred in those who were of normal weight and free of abdominal fat (pot belly). Moderate exercise had a greater effect on preventing premature death in normal weight people than it did in the overweight or obese. The European study found that increased exercise lowered the risk of death twice as much as losing weight. However, increased physical activity also made a difference for the overweight and obese.
The fact remains. Any physical activity makes a difference. If you want to live longer, whatever your weight, get up and move. The longer you wait to start, the more likely you are to die before your time.
FOOD FROM THE GARDEN 