The sad truth is that healthy living science is nowhere near where the public believes or is told that it is. We just don't have the drilled down specifics of this food vs. that food, or this exercise vs. that exercise, etc.
So what do we know? It's a really safe bet that these 8 behaviours are good for your health:
- Cooking foods from fresh whole ingredients and eating them free from distraction
- Minimizing restaurant meals
- Minimizing consumption of sugary liquids
- Drinking alcohol at most in moderation
- Exercising as much and as often as you can enjoy
- Sleeping well
- Cultivating and maintaining friendships
- Not smoking
This New Year's resolution season, steer clear of the stupid stuff and focus on as many of those 8 things as you can, because everything else? Everything else is either total but innocent nonsense, too soon to be conclusive hopefulness, genuinely inconsequential minutia, or sheer conflict-of-interest inspired bullshit.