Can you undo your past health mistakes?

It\'s time to repair the mistakes you made in your younger years

anti ageing,diets,exercise,healthy eating,healthy living,Prima,drinks woman on bed with photos, remembering her past In your younger years, you probably ate and drank all the wrong things, burnt the candle at both ends and exercised rarely. Now you\'re trying to live a healthier life, how easy is it to make up for those diet and fitness errors?

You cut out food groups

anti ageing,diets,healthy eating,healthy living,Prima,milk,womens health young woman putting milk in fridge

Damage done: Cutting out dairy products can harm your bones, while eliminating meat from your diet without introducing other iron-rich foods may trigger anaemia. Restricting calories in general can affect bones and fertility.

Bounce-back factor: Fair. Some nutritional deficiencies (such as anaemia) are transient and won\'t do long-term damage if you start eating more healthily now. But cutting out dairy for long periods in your teens or twenties puts you at risk of osteoporosis later in life, because this is the period of peak bone development. According to the Dairy Council, it\'s never too late to start putting more calcium back into your diet, but you\'ll generally only be stopping things getting worse if you\'re over 30. Eating soya regularly may give your bones the best chance, as soya isoflavones encourage new bone growth. Talk to your GP if you have a family history of osteoporosis - you may need specialist treatments.

 

Read more about osteoporosis: \'How strong are your bones?\'

You used to binge drink

cider & beer,cocktails,wine,anti ageing,healthy eating,healthy living,Prima,drinks,brain booster woman holding drink

Damage done: Binge drinking (more than five units in a night) impairs mental abilities while you\'re under the influence. In the longer term (usually over many years), it can cause progressive liver disease - first fatty liver (fat in liver cells), which then progresses to alcoholic hepatitis and finally to liver sclerosis.

Bounce-back factor: Very good. If you\'ve cut out the drink, a fatty liver will repair itself within a few months. Your liver can also recover from alcoholic hepatitis but never completely from sclerosis. Although lost brain cells are gone forever, heavy drinkers will recover significant brain function over a period of a year.

 

Do you drink more than you think? Find out here...

You were a fruit and veg dodger

anti ageing,healthy eating,Prima woman juggling fruit and veg

Damage done: Skimping on fruit and veg may increase your cancer risk and chance of being overweight, because you\'re not filling up on low-calorie, low-fat foods.

 

Bounce-back factor: Good. Introducing more veg any time up to late middle age should cut your risk of heart disease and cancer, and therefore increase your chance of living longer. It will also improve energy levels, skin condition and weight loss.

 

Read more on getting your five fruit and veg a day: \'How big is a portion?\'

You ate too much salt

anti ageing,healthy eating,Prima woman adding salt to food

Damage done: Salt can raise your blood pressure, with the risks increasing as we age. The majority of salt we eat comes from processed foods, so read food labels carefully.

 

Bounce-back factor: Very good. The beneficial effect of cutting down on salt will be almost immediate, and more dramatic the older you are. Experts estimate that a reduction by one third in salt intake (from 9g to 6g daily) could reduce strokes in the UK by 22 per cent, and heart attacks by 16 per cent.

 

Read more: \'15 ways to cut down on salt\'

You were a yo-yo dieter

anti ageing,diets,healthy eating,healthy living,Prima hand with yoyo: yoyo dieting

Damage done: It was once thought that repeatedly losing and gaining a stone or so messed up your metabolism, but recent studies dispute this.

 

Bounce-back factor: Good. There\'s nothing to stop you losing weight and keeping it off. America\'s National Weight Control Registry (a database of 5,000 people who have lost 30 pounds and kept it off for a year) shows it can be done. Members say small lifestyle changes are key.

 

Read more on maintaining weight loss

You were a stranger to the gym

anti ageing,exercise,healthy living,Prima older woman learning spinning

Damage done: People who take no physical exercise are much more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, a bad back and depression.

 

Bounce-back factor: Good. You\'ll get much fitter surprisingly quickly by doing just 30 minutes of activity every day. To avoid it being an uphill struggle, you need to tackle inactivity by the age of 40, when you start to lose muscle at a much faster rate.

 

Read more on exercise at any age

You lived on fast food

anti ageing,healthy eating,healthy living,Prima woman eating burger

Damage done: Too many saturated fats and trans fats significantly increase your risk of high cholesterol, blocked arteries and a heart attack. You\'ll be at higher risk of obesity and diabetes, too.

 

Bounce-back factor: Fair. A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips? Not necessarily. It is possible to get your weight and cholesterol under control by restricting fatty foods from your diet, even if you don\'t get around to it until middle age - as soon as you do this, your health will improve. In fact, reducing blood cholesterol by ten per cent reduces your risk of heart disease by twice as much. But the earlier, the better, especially if you have a family history of heart disease.

 

Read more on family health secrets you need to share

 

Loading.. please wait

Thanks! Your comment has been added to this topic.