What Actually Makes Me Healthier?

There are so many health tips competing for our attention. (Supplements! Cold plunges! Wearables! Fibermaxxing!) So what actually moves the needle?

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There’s been a lot of weird health advice over the years.

In the 1920s, companies began putting the radioactive element radium in everything: water, toothpaste, face cream, crockpots, on the logic that “energy from atoms” must be good. (It wasn’t: Golf champion Eben Byers drank 1,400 bottles of radium water on doctor’s orders and then died of radiation poisoning.)

Next came surgically implanting goat testicles into men to improve their virility, cure insanity, and prevent the flu. (Didn’t work, especially for the goats.) When Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invented Corn Flakes, it was purposely bland because he intended it to stop masturbation. (Jury’s still out.)

And doctors sometimes blew tobacco-smoke up patients’ rectums to boost their energy. (Also didn’t work, but did give us the expression “blowing smoke”.)

You must admire people’s dedication to tracking their runs.

Okay, but exercise is good, right? (What should I do?)

It’s true! Exercise keeps you healthy! And it doesn’t take much.

The most valuable part of exercise is the jump from being sedentary to a bit more active: People who exercise for just 50 minutes per week see a 30% drop in mortality, and it only takes three daily bursts of activity — like walking fast for two minutes, or climbing a few flights of stairs, or gardening — to get most of that benefit. (Don’t worry about 10,000 steps a day — that figure came from a 1960 Japanese pedometer ad. Actual data shows the biggest benefit comes from walking 5,000 to 7,000 steps.)

But you’re more ambitious than that! You want the big muscles and endless pep! The best health benefits come from 20 to 30 minutes of daily exercise. A simple routine will do the trick, like The Fitness Wiki’s free, evidence-based workouts for beginners, runners, staying limber and everyone else.

That said, the very best workout is whichever one you’ll do consistently. I use the app FitBod because it takes away all my decision making. (I’m not sponsored by them.)

Or, you can hire a personal trainer for not much money, and let them motivate you. Find someone local at FindYourTrainer.com or online at FuturePro or eCoach.

What about food? What should I eat?

You know the basic answer: Eat real food. Mostly plants. Not too much. (“Avoid anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize.”)

Also, eat more fiber: Roughly 95% of Americans fall short of their fiber needs. And fiber-rich diets are tied to lower blood pressure, less cardiovascular disease, reduced blood sugar spikes and healthier gut microbiomes, which reduce inflammation and might increase brain health.

So how do we achieve Fibermaxxing? Easy: eat beans, lentils, oats, fruit, vegetables (particularly leafy ones), whole grains and nuts. If you have a salad for lunch, you’re good.

And it’s okay to eat frozen fruits and vegetables (research shows they’re sometimes more nutritious because they’re picked near peak ripeness and immediately frozen). Also, potatoes are surprisingly healthy (as long as they aren’t fried) because they contain lots of potassium, vitamin C, fiber and prebiotics. (They’re also #1 on the ‘Satiety Index‘, so you feel full.)

And dark chocolate: It turns out you’d have to ​eat a calorically catastrophic​ amount of dark chocolate to see any cardiovascular benefits (despite what chocolate companies say). But dark chocolate tastes really good. So go ahead and dip your fruit.

But there’s all those supplements! And cold plunges! And weird peptides. Should I use those?

There’s nothing wrong with supplements: vitamins B6, B12, C, D, E, omega-3s and folic acid are weakly correlated with lower mortality. Taking creatine monohydrate can help with cognition and energy and maintaining muscle mass (as long as you’re exercising). Each night I take the ‘Huberman sleep stack‘ (Magnesium L-Threonate, Apigenin and L-Theanine) and it helps me slumber.

But you know what’s more fun than a bunch of pills? Saunas. (People who sweat it out 4 to 7 times a week have a 40% lower risk of dying from heart attacks, cancer and other diseases.) Also spending time with other people. (Strong social relationships are associated with a 50% increase in longevity, an effect comparable to quitting smoking and larger than the effect of obesity.) Owning a pet that requires walking. (A meta-analysis of 3.8 million dog owners found 24% lower mortality rates.) And coffee (it’s not the caffeine but the hundreds of plant compounds in the bean; coffee is basically a vegetable we drink), Sex (one study found people with the highest orgasm frequency had half the mortality of the least active) and doing nothing in the sun (a 20-year Swedish study of 30,000 women found sun avoidance was a mortality risk on par with smoking — but you still need to use sunscreen.)

And, sure, if you enjoy a cold plunge, go for it. (They can temporarily lower stress, help you sleep better and prevent muscle soreness. They do, however, make it harder to have more sex, because you’re partner is sick of your cold feet and hearing about how great cold plunges are.) That said, when it comes to random peptides off the internet, don’t be an idiot. Unless a doctor prescribed them, they’re not a good idea.

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