Healthy lifestyle habits

Americans are far less healthy than they could be. Six in ten live with at least one chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, or diabetes. These diseases account for seven of every ten deaths in the United States, yet they are largely preventable.

Researchers analyzed CDC data alongside two large long-term population studies and found that people who practiced five specific lifestyle habits dramatically cut their risks of heart disease and cancer compared with those who practiced none.

The five habits:

Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and unsaturated fatty acids, and low in red and processed meats, sugary drinks, trans fats, and sodium.

Do not smoke.

Get at least 3.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week.

Drink alcohol only moderately: no more than one drink a day for women and two or fewer for men.

Maintain a healthy body weight and waist size.

How effective are these measures? Practicing all five habits from age 50 onward extended life by more than a decade compared with practicing none. Women who adopted none of the habits lived to 79 on average, while those who adopted all five lived to 93. Men who practiced none lived to 75 on average; those who practiced all five lived to nearly 88.