Sitting for eight hours a day is as bad as smoking, obesity

Most Aussies have adopted this one habit every day — but now it’s been shown to be as dangerous as smoking and obesity. See what it is and how you can stop it.

It is one of the toughest and busiest phases of life, where career and family ambitions collide and, for some, there is the added task of caring for ageing relatives.

But adopting the Mediterranean diet, reducing sitting time, exercising in small, intense bursts and sleeping longer are the key to improving your health once you turn 30.

Those small health and diet tweaks in your 30-50s could add up to eight years to your life and ward off chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia.

“If we increase physical activity by 1.5 minutes per day, increase sleep by 15 minutes per day, and improve diet by adding an extra 1/3 of a cup of fresh vegetables we get a 10 per cent reduction in all cause mortality risk,” University of Sydney’s physical activity expert Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis said.

The most common age for conceiving a child is now in the thirties so it's crucial women and men are fit and healthy to give their baby the best start in life.

EATING IS EVERYTHING

Countless studies have found the Mediterranean way of eating is the best way to improve health and ward off chronic disease.

Switching to a Mediterranean diet based on mainly fresh vegetables, wholegrains, olive oil and small amounts of meat is the key not just to weight loss but good health.

HOW MEDITERRANEAN DIET COULD HELP YOU LIVE TO 100

On the Greek island of Ikaria, living to the age of 100 is not uncommon, because of the Mediterranean diet.

“There are lots of festivals, they do enjoy cooking and eating together. They sleep in the afternoon and they have a positive outlook on life,” Australia’s Mediterranean lifestyle guru RMIT Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos said.

Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos. Picture: Supplied

“A 107-year-old I met a few years ago was making rugs and bags and was still able to use a loom at her age.”

The 5000-year-old peasant-style way of living is not a “diet” to lose weight but a lifestyle.

It has an anti-inflammatory lean, which can prevent multiple health conditions and slow down the ageing process.

“This eating pattern improves diabetes control, it reverses fatty liver disease, it improves cardiovascular risk, it reduces the risk of having that first heart attack or secondary heart attack. It reduces risk for stroke, reduces risk for developing dementia and even other forms of inflammation like asthma,” she said.

The traditional Greek lifestyle also involves up to 200 days of “fasting” each year – which is not complete fasting but eating mainly vegetables on certain days.

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TIME OF EXERCISE IS KEY

Finding time for exercise when working long hours and juggling the demands of young children is almost impossible for this age group.

By the time they reach their mid-40s, more than three quarters of men (77.8 per cent) are overweight or obese, as are 68 per cent of women (ABS HEALTH SURVEY 2022).

While nearly three in four (75.1 per cent) people in their 40s complete the required 150 minutes of physical activity per week, only one in three (35 per cent) undertake any strength training or muscle building activities (ABS HEALTH SURVEY 2022).

More than eight in 10 (85.8 per cent) of Australians will have a major health condition by the time they reach the age of 45 and many of these conditions are preventable through lifestyle changes (ABS HEALTH SURVEY 2022).

The Cancer Council warns that being overweight significantly increases the risk of 13 different types of cancer including breast (post-menopause), bowel, kidney, liver, endometrial, ovarian, stomach, thyroid, oesophagus, gallbladder, pancreas, multiple myeloma and prostate (advanced) cancers.

It can also put you at risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and arthritis.

NEW WAY TO EXERCISE

When it comes to daily exercise, the trick for this age group is not doing it all in one go.

If you don’t have time for an hour of uninterrupted exercise – a series of short, 1-2 minute bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA), like stair climbing, over the day is enough.

While the hallowed 10,000 steps a day is a common goal, new research shows taking just 4000 steps a day can still deliver health benefits.

And 11 minutes of burpees, jump squats and running in place three times a week is enough to improve your aerobic endurance.

Walking up 50 steps on a staircase each day can slash your risk of cardiovascular disease.

You need to do 2-3 sessions of muscle-strengthening per week. picture: iStock

Australia’s physical activity guidelines require adults to achieve 2.5 hours of moderate intensity activity per week (23 minutes per day), or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise.

In addition, you need to do 2-3 sessions of muscle-strengthening per week.

Only around 15 per cent of Australians meet these guidelines.

Professor Stamatakis’ groundbreaking research found if you incorporate short bursts of VILPA activity into your day, less exercise time is required to stay healthy.

“We could see very large effect sizes from very little physical activity,” he said.

“Our studies say that you can get perhaps more benefits from around 30 minutes of VILPA a week.

“The equivalent of three one-minute long bouts of this kind of activity a day was associated with 50 per cent reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk on average.”

SITTING IS AS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH AS SMOKING

Sitting for eight hours a day can be as bad for your health as smoking or obesity.

New research suggests sitting for eight hours a day can be as bad for your health as smoking or obesity.

The Heart Foundation said even if you meet physical guidelines and get 60 minutes of daily activity, spending more than 15 hours – or 90 per cent of your total waking hours – sitting down could be putting your health at risk.