Exercise is more important than diet when it comes to maintaining your health as you grow older, according to a new study.
A Gallup poll taken this year of people 65 and older found that exercise was the commonest factor in maintaining very good or excellent health. Other factors included not being obese and visiting the dentist regularly.
Those who exercise regularly were 17 percent likelier than their more sedentary counterparts to classify themselves as in “very good/excellent health.” The same percentage point held true for those who visited the dentist regularly versus those who didn’t. Those who didn’t think of themselves as obese were 15 percent likelier than those who regarded themselves as severely overweight to report themselves in very good or excellent health.
The difference was just 10 percent between those who ate healthy “all day yesterday” and even smaller – 8 percent – between nonsmokers and smokers.
