New study of people reveals three habits for a longer life

There is a tendency for people to resort to extremes in reaction to the global epidemic of chronic disease.

Calls for moderation are drowned out by calls to banish sugar, carbohydrates, gluten (insert problem nutrient du jour), work out like we’re possessed and renounce all worldly pleasures.

Careers are made on silver bullet advice and ‘‘evidence’’ comes when those who clean up their diets and lifestyles after years of abuse inevitably feel and look better, while actual evidencebased advice, like national dietary guidelines, are dismissed as ineffective.

We throw the baby out with the bathwater. But we should not.

An extensive new study has explored the extent to which various lifestyle factors affect health and longevity.

The three lifestyle behaviours linked with a longer, healthier life are: don’t smoke, keep your weight within a healthy range and your booze intake in check.

Using longitudinal data, the researchers from the University of Michigan tracked 14,000 people from the age of 50, comparing those who didn’t smoke, were not obese and drank moderately (defined as less than 14 drinks a week for men and less than seven drinks a week for women) with ‘‘average Americans’’ (80 per cent of Americans smoke, are obese or both by age 50).

They found that the low-risk group had a life expectancy of four to seven years longer and a ‘‘substantial postponement of the onset of disability’’ – specifically, if they lived seven years longer, they were disability-free for six of those years.

‘‘These results provide a benchmark for evaluating the massively damaging effects that behavioural risks have on health at older ages and the importance of prioritising policies to implement behavioural-based interventions,’’ the authors wrote in the journal Health Affairs.