benefits of good health essay

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Importance of Good Health

Categories: Childhood Obesity

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

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Related Essays on Childhood Obesity

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Childhood Obesity Facts. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436791/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK436791.pdf

Buzzell, L. (2019, August 13). Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-eating-on-a-budget#1.-Plan-meals-and-shop-for-groceries-in-advance

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Physical Activity Is Good for the Mind and the Body

Health and Well-Being Matter is the monthly blog of the Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Everyone has their own way to “recharge” their sense of well-being — something that makes them feel good physically, emotionally, and spiritually even if they aren’t consciously aware of it. Personally, I know that few things can improve my day as quickly as a walk around the block or even just getting up from my desk and doing some push-ups. A hike through the woods is ideal when I can make it happen. But that’s me. It’s not simply that I enjoy these activities but also that they literally make me feel better and clear my mind.

Mental health and physical health are closely connected. No kidding — what’s good for the body is often good for the mind. Knowing what you can do physically that has this effect for you will change your day and your life.

Physical activity has many well-established mental health benefits. These are published in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and include improved brain health and cognitive function (the ability to think, if you will), a reduced risk of anxiety and depression, and improved sleep and overall quality of life. Although not a cure-all, increasing physical activity directly contributes to improved mental health and better overall health and well-being.

Learning how to routinely manage stress and getting screened for depression are simply good prevention practices. Awareness is especially critical at this time of year when disruptions to healthy habits and choices can be more likely and more jarring. Shorter days and colder temperatures have a way of interrupting routines — as do the holidays, with both their joys and their stresses. When the plentiful sunshine and clear skies of temperate months give way to unpredictable weather, less daylight, and festive gatherings, it may happen unconsciously or seem natural to be distracted from being as physically active. However, that tendency is precisely why it’s so important that we are ever more mindful of our physical and emotional health — and how we can maintain both — during this time of year.

Roughly half of all people in the United States will be diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime, with anxiety and anxiety disorders being the most common. Major depression, another of the most common mental health disorders, is also a leading cause of disability for middle-aged adults. Compounding all of this, mental health disorders like depression and anxiety can affect people’s ability to take part in health-promoting behaviors, including physical activity. In addition, physical health problems can contribute to mental health problems and make it harder for people to get treatment for mental health disorders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need to take care of our physical and emotional health to light even more so these past 2 years. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General highlighted how the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis in youth .

The good news is that even small amounts of physical activity can immediately reduce symptoms of anxiety in adults and older adults. Depression has also shown to be responsive to physical activity. Research suggests that increased physical activity, of any kind, can improve depression symptoms experienced by people across the lifespan. Engaging in regular physical activity has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing depression in children and adults.

Though the seasons and our life circumstances may change, our basic needs do not. Just as we shift from shorts to coats or fresh summer fruits and vegetables to heartier fall food choices, so too must we shift our seasonal approach to how we stay physically active. Some of that is simply adapting to conditions: bundling up for a walk, wearing the appropriate shoes, or playing in the snow with the kids instead of playing soccer in the grass.

Sometimes there’s a bit more creativity involved. Often this means finding ways to simplify activity or make it more accessible. For example, it may not be possible to get to the gym or even take a walk due to weather or any number of reasons. In those instances, other options include adding new types of movement — such as impromptu dance parties at home — or doing a few household chores (yes, it all counts as physical activity).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I built a makeshift gym in my garage as an alternative to driving back and forth to the gym several miles from home. That has not only saved me time and money but also afforded me the opportunity to get 15 to 45 minutes of muscle-strengthening physical activity in at odd times of the day.

For more ideas on how to get active — on any day — or for help finding the motivation to get started, check out this Move Your Way® video .

The point to remember is that no matter the approach, the Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (anything that gets your heart beating faster) each week and at least 2 days per week of muscle-strengthening activity (anything that makes your muscles work harder than usual). Youth need 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day. Preschool-aged children ages 3 to 5 years need to be active throughout the day — with adult caregivers encouraging active play — to enhance growth and development. Striving toward these goals and then continuing to get physical activity, in some shape or form, contributes to better health outcomes both immediately and over the long term.

For youth, sports offer additional avenues to more physical activity and improved mental health. Youth who participate in sports may enjoy psychosocial health benefits beyond the benefits they gain from other forms of leisure-time physical activity. Psychological health benefits include higher levels of perceived competence, confidence, and self-esteem — not to mention the benefits of team building, leadership, and resilience, which are important skills to apply on the field and throughout life. Research has also shown that youth sports participants have a reduced risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Additionally, team sports participation during adolescence may lead to better mental health outcomes in adulthood (e.g., less anxiety and depression) for people exposed to adverse childhood experiences. In addition to the physical and mental health benefits, sports can be just plain fun.

Physical activity’s implications for significant positive effects on mental health and social well-being are enormous, impacting every facet of life. In fact, because of this national imperative, the presidential executive order that re-established the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition explicitly seeks to “expand national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition.” While physical activity is not a substitute for mental health treatment when needed and it’s not the answer to certain mental health challenges, it does play a significant role in our emotional and cognitive well-being.

No matter how we choose to be active during the holiday season — or any season — every effort to move counts toward achieving recommended physical activity goals and will have positive impacts on both the mind and the body. Along with preventing diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and the additional risks associated with these comorbidities, physical activity’s positive effect on mental health is yet another important reason to be active and Move Your Way .

As for me… I think it’s time for a walk. Happy and healthy holidays, everyone!

Yours in health, Paul

Paul Reed, MD Rear Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Director, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.

Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by ODPHP or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.

You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Six Ways Happiness Is Good for Your Health

Over the past decade, an entire industry has sprouted up promising the secrets to happiness. There are best-selling books like The Happiness Project and The How of Happiness , and happiness programs like Happify and Tal-Ben Shahar’s Wholebeing Institute .

Here at the Greater Good Science Center, we offer an online course on “The Science of Happiness” and boast a collection of research-based happiness practices on our new website, Greater Good in Action .

But all of these books and classes raise the question: Why bother? Many of us might prefer to focus on boosting our productivity and success rather than our positive emotions. Or perhaps we’ve tried to get happier but always seem to get leveled by setbacks. Why keep trying?

Recently, a critical mass of research has provided what might be the most basic and irrefutable argument in favor of happiness: Happiness and good health go hand-in-hand. Indeed, scientific studies have been finding that happiness can make our hearts healthier, our immune systems stronger, and our lives longer.

Several of the studies cited below suggest that happiness causes better health; others suggest only that the two are correlated—perhaps good health causes happiness but not the other way around. Happiness and health may indeed be a virtuous circle, but researchers are still trying to untangle their relationship. In the meantime, if you need some extra motivation to get happier , check out these six ways that happiness has been linked to good health.

1. Happiness protects your heart

Love and happiness may not actually originate in the heart, but they are good for it. For example, a 2005 paper found that happiness predicts lower heart rate and blood pressure. In the study, participants rated their happiness over 30 times in one day and then again three years later. The initially happiest participants had a lower heart rate on follow-up (about six beats slower per minute), and the happiest participants during the follow-up had better blood pressure.

Research has also uncovered a link between happiness and another measure of heart health: heart rate variability, which refers to the time interval between heartbeats and is associated with risk for various diseases. In a 2008 study , researchers monitored 76 patients suspected to have coronary artery disease. Was happiness linked to healthier hearts even among people who might have heart problems? It seemed so: The participants who rated themselves as happiest on the day their hearts were tested had a healthier pattern of heart rate variability on that day.

Over time, these effects can add up to serious differences in heart health. In a 2010 study , researchers invited nearly 2,000 Canadians into the lab to talk about their anger and stress at work. Observers rated them on a scale of one to five for the extent to which they expressed positive emotions like joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment. Ten years later, the researchers checked in with the participants to see how they were doing—and it turned out that the happier ones were less likely to have developed coronary heart disease. In fact, for each one-point increase in positive emotions they had expressed, their heart disease risk was 22 percent lower.

2. Happiness strengthens your immune system

Do you know a grumpy person who always seems to be getting sick? That may be no coincidence: Research is now finding a link between happiness and a stronger immune system.

In a 2003 experiment , 350 adults volunteered to get exposed to the common cold (don’t worry, they were well-compensated). Before exposure, researchers called them six times in two weeks and asked how much they had experienced nine positive emotions—such as feeling energetic, pleased, and calm—that day. After five days in quarantine, the participants with the most positive emotions were less likely to have developed a cold.

Some of the same researchers wanted to investigate why happier people might be less susceptible to sickness, so in a 2006 study they gave 81 graduate students the hepatitis B vaccine. After receiving the first two doses, participants rated themselves on those same nine positive emotions. The ones who were high in positive emotion were nearly twice as likely to have a high antibody response to the vaccine—a sign of a robust immune system. Instead of merely affecting symptoms, happiness seemed to be literally working on a cellular level.

A much earlier experiment found that immune system activity in the same individual goes up and down depending on their happiness. For two months, 30 male dental students took pills containing a harmless blood protein from rabbits, which causes an immune response in humans. They also rated whether they had experienced various positive moods that day. On days when they were happier, participants had a better immune response, as measured by the presence of an antibody in their saliva that defends against foreign substances.

3. Happiness combats stress

Stress is not only upsetting on a psychological level but also triggers biological changes in our hormones and blood pressure. Happiness seems to temper these effects, or at least help us recover more quickly.

In the study mentioned above, where participants rated their happiness more than 30 times in a day, researchers also found associations between happiness and stress. The happiest participants had 23 percent lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than the least happy, and another indicator of stress—the level of a blood-clotting protein that increases after stress—was 12 times lower.

Happiness also seems to carry benefits even when stress is inevitable. In a 2009 study , some diabolically cruel researchers decided to stress out psychology students and see how they reacted. The students were led to a soundproof chamber, where they first answered questions indicating whether they generally felt 10 feelings like enthusiasm or pride. Then came their worst nightmare: They had to answer an exceedingly difficult statistics question while being videotaped, and they were told that their professor would evaluate their response. Throughout the process, their heart was measured with an electrocardiogram (EKG) machine and a blood pressure monitor. In the wake of such stress, the hearts of the happiest students recovered most quickly.

4. Happy people have fewer aches and pains

Unhappiness can be painful—literally.

A 2001 study asked participants to rate their recent experience of positive emotions, then (five weeks later) how much they had experienced negative symptoms like muscle strain, dizziness, and heartburn since the study began. People who reported the highest levels of positive emotion at the beginning actually became healthier over the course of the study, and ended up healthier than their unhappy counterparts. The fact that their health improved over five weeks (and the health of the unhappiest participants declined) suggests that the results aren’t merely evidence of people in a good mood giving rosier ratings of their health than people in a bad mood.

A 2005 study suggests that positive emotion also mitigates pain in the context of disease. Women with arthritis and chronic pain rated themselves weekly on positive emotions like interest, enthusiasm, and inspiration for about three months. Over the course of the study, those with higher ratings overall were less likely to experience increases in pain.

5. Happiness combats disease and disability

Happiness is associated with improvements in more severe, long-term conditions as well, not just shorter-term aches and pains.

In a 2008 study of nearly 10,000 Australians, participants who reported being happy and satisfied with life most or all of the time were about 1.5 times less likely to have long-term health conditions (like chronic pain and serious vision problems) two years later. Another study in the same year found that women with breast cancer recalled being less happy and optimistic before their diagnosis than women without breast cancer, suggesting that happiness and optimism may be protective against the disease.

As adults become elderly, another condition that often afflicts them is frailty, which is characterized by impaired strength, endurance, and balance and puts them at risk of disability and death. In a 2004 study, over 1,550 Mexican Americans ages 65 and older rated how much self-esteem, hope, happiness, and enjoyment they felt over the past week. After seven years, the participants with more positive emotion ratings were less likely to be frail. Some of the same researchers also found that happier elderly people (by the same measure of positive emotion) were less likely to have a stroke in the subsequent six years; this was particularly true for men.

6. Happiness lengthens our lives

In the end, the ultimate health indicator might be longevity—and here, especially, happiness comes into play. In perhaps the most famous study of happiness and longevity, the life expectancy of Catholic nuns was linked to the amount of positive emotion they expressed in an autobiographical essay they wrote upon entering their convent decades earlier, typically in their 20s. Researchers combed through these writing samples for expressions of feelings like amusement, contentment, gratitude, and love. In the end, the happiest-seeming nuns lived a whopping 7-10 years longer than the least happy.

You don’t have to be a nun to experience the life-extending benefits of happiness, though. In a 2011 study , almost 4,000 English adults ages 52-79 reported how happy, excited, and content they were multiple times in a single day. Here, happier people were 35 percent less likely to die over the course of about five years than their unhappier counterparts.

These two studies both measured specific positive emotions, but overall satisfaction with one’s life—another major indicator of happiness—is also linked to longevity. A 2010 study followed almost 7,000 people from California’s Alameda County for nearly three decades, finding that the people who were more satisfied with life at the beginning were less likely to die during the course of the study.

While happiness can lengthen our lives, it can’t perform miracles. There’s some evidence that the link between happiness and longevity doesn’t extend to the ill —or at least not to the very ill.

A 2005 meta-analysis , aggregating the results of other studies on health and happiness, speculates that experiencing positive emotion is helpful in diseases with a long timeline but could actually be harmful in late-stage disease. The authors cite studies showing that positive emotion lowers the risk of death in people with diabetes and AIDS , but actually increases the risk in people with metastatic breast cancer , early-stage melanoma , and end-stage kidney disease . That increased risk might be due to the fact that happier people underreport their symptoms and don’t get the right treatment, or take worse care of themselves because they are overly optimistic.

More on Happiness

Explore the relationship between meaning & happiness

Discover the secret to a happy life .

Read Rick Hanson's "How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness."

Listen to Sonja Lyubomirsky on the myths of happiness .

Discover a better way to pursue happiness .

As the science of happiness and health matures, researchers are trying to determine what role, if any, happiness actually plays in causing health benefits. They’re also trying to distinguish the effects of different forms of happiness (including positive emotions and life satisfaction), the effects of “extreme” happiness, and other factors. For example, a new study suggests that we should look not just at life satisfaction levels but life satisfaction variability : Researchers found that low life satisfaction with lots of fluctuations—i.e., an unstable level of happiness—was linked to even earlier death than low life satisfaction alone.

All that said, the study of the health benefits of happiness is still young. It will take time to figure out the exact mechanisms by which happiness influences health, and how factors like social relationships and exercise fit in. But in the meantime, it seems safe to imagine that a happier you will be healthier, too.

About the Author

Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good . Her work has been published in outlets including the Washington Post , Mindful magazine, Social Media Monthly , and Tech.co, and she is the co-editor of The Gratitude Project . Follow her on Twitter!

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The Importance of Mental Health

It's not just a buzzword

Elizabeth is a freelance health and wellness writer. She helps brands craft factual, yet relatable content that resonates with diverse audiences.

Akeem Marsh, MD, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who has dedicated his career to working with medically underserved communities.

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Risk Factors for Poor Mental Health

Signs of mental health problems, benefits of good mental health, how to maintain mental health and well-being.

Your mental health is an important part of your well-being. This aspect of your welfare determines how you’re able to operate psychologically, emotionally, and socially among others.

Considering how much of a role your mental health plays in each aspect of your life, it's important to guard and improve psychological wellness using appropriate measures.

Because different circumstances can affect your mental health, we’ll be highlighting risk factors and signs that may indicate mental distress. But most importantly, we’ll dive into why mental health is so important.

Mental health is described as a state of well-being where a person is able to cope with the normal stresses of life. This state permits productive work output and allows for meaningful contributions to society.

However, different circumstances exist that may affect the ability to handle life’s curveballs. These factors may also disrupt daily activities, and the capacity to manage these changes. That's only one reason why mental health is so important.

The following factors, listed below, may affect mental well-being and could increase the risk of developing psychological disorders .

Childhood Abuse

Childhood physical assault, sexual violence, emotional abuse, or neglect can lead to severe mental and emotional distress. Abuse increases the risk of developing mental disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or personality disorders.

Children who have been abused may eventually deal with alcohol and substance use issues. But beyond mental health challenges, child abuse may also lead to medical complications such as diabetes, stroke, and other forms of heart disease.

The Environment

A strong contributor to mental well-being is the state of a person’s usual environment . Adverse environmental circumstances can cause negative effects on psychological wellness.

For instance, weather conditions may influence an increase in suicide cases. Likewise, experiencing natural disasters firsthand can increase the chances of developing PTSD. In certain cases, air pollution may produce negative effects on depression symptoms.

In contrast, living in a positive social environment can provide protection against mental challenges.

Your biological makeup could determine the state of your well-being. A number of mental health disorders have been found to run in families and may be passed down to members.

These include conditions such as autism , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , bipolar disorder , depression , and schizophrenia .

Your lifestyle can also impact your mental health. Smoking, a poor diet , alcohol consumption , substance use , and risky sexual behavior may cause psychological harm. These behaviors have been linked to depression.

When mental health is compromised, it isn’t always apparent to the individual or those around them. However, there are certain warning signs to look out for, that may signify negative changes for the well-being. These include:

A switch in eating habits, whether over or undereating
A noticeable reduction in energy levels
Being more reclusive and shying away from others
Feeling persistent despair
Indulging in alcohol, tobacco, or other substances more than usual
Experiencing unexplained confusion, anger, guilt, or worry
Severe mood swings
Picking fights with family and friends
Hearing voices with no identifiable source
Thinking of self-harm or causing harm to others
Being unable to perform daily tasks with ease

Whether young or old, the importance of mental health for total well-being cannot be overstated. When psychological wellness is affected, it can cause negative behaviors that may not only affect personal health but can also compromise relationships with others.

Below are some of the benefits of good mental health.

A Stronger Ability to Cope With Life’s Stressors

When mental and emotional states are at peak levels, the challenges of life can be easier to overcome.

Where alcohol/drugs, isolation, tantrums, or fighting may have been adopted to manage relationship disputes, financial woes, work challenges, and other life issues—a stable mental state can encourage healthier coping mechanisms.

A Positive Self-Image

Mental health greatly correlates with personal feelings about oneself. Overall mental wellness plays a part in your self-esteem . Confidence can often be a good indicator of a healthy mental state.

A person whose mental health is flourishing is more likely to focus on the good in themselves. They will hone in on these qualities, and will generally have ambitions that strive for a healthy, happy life.

Healthier Relationships

If your mental health is in good standing, you might be more capable of providing your friends and family with quality time , affection , and support. When you're not in emotional distress, it can be easier to show up and support the people you care about.

Better Productivity

Dealing with depression or other mental health disorders can impact your productivity levels. If you feel mentally strong , it's more likely that you will be able to work more efficiently and provide higher quality work.

Higher Quality of Life

When mental well-being thrives, your quality of life may improve. This can give room for greater participation in community building. For example, you may begin volunteering in soup kitchens, at food drives, shelters, etc.

You might also pick up new hobbies , and make new acquaintances , and travel to new cities.

Because mental health is so important to general wellness, it’s important that you take care of your mental health.

To keep mental health in shape, a few introductions to and changes to lifestyle practices may be required. These include:

Taking up regular exercise
Prioritizing rest and sleep on a daily basis
Trying meditation
Learning coping skills for life challenges
Keeping in touch with loved ones
Maintaining a positive outlook on life

Another proven way to improve and maintain mental well-being is through the guidance of a professional. Talk therapy can teach you healthier ways to interact with others and coping mechanisms to try during difficult times.

Therapy can also help you address some of your own negative behaviors and provide you with the tools to make some changes in your own life.

The Bottom Line

So why is mental health so important? That's an easy answer: It profoundly affects every area of your life. If you're finding it difficult to address mental health concerns on your own, don't hesitate to seek help from a licensed therapist .

World Health Organization. Mental Health: Strengthening our Response .

Lippard ETC, Nemeroff CB. The Devastating Clinical Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increased Disease Vulnerability and Poor Treatment Response in Mood Disorders . Am J Psychiatry . 2020;177(1):20-36. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010020

Helbich M. Mental Health and Environmental Exposures: An Editorial. Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2018;15(10):2207. Published 2018 Oct 10. doi:10.3390/ijerph15102207

National Institutes of Health. Common Genetic Factors Found in 5 Mental Disorders .

Zaman R, Hankir A, Jemni M. Lifestyle Factors and Mental Health . Psychiatr Danub . 2019;31(Suppl 3):217-220.

Medline Plus. What Is mental health? .

National Alliance on Mental Health. Why Self-Esteem Is Important for Mental Health .

By Elizabeth Plumptre Elizabeth is a freelance health and wellness writer. She helps brands craft factual, yet relatable content that resonates with diverse audiences.

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Importance Of Good Health (Essay Sample)

The importance of good health.

Good health is crucial to everything we do in our everyday lives. The importance of good health can be clearly seen in how we function as human beings in the daily tasks that define our functionality in the society. Without good health, we are not able to reach our individual potentials and this can hinder us from achieving our personal goals in the social environment that we exist in.

True enough, defining good health moves beyond the physical sense; it also includes emotional and mental. Good health means the different aspects of well-being which are mold together. For one individual to function properly, he or she should be physically fit, as well as emotionally and mentally. Having one missing aspect in an individual’s health can have heavy implications for an individual.

In both home and work, health is also required in building social relationships. If we are unfit to build these connections, it can imply that we are depriving ourselves of social stimulation that can help in improving our outlook and disposition in everything we do. In most cases, it can be said that good health can be equated to an individual’s self-actualization. An individual who is actualized has a nurtured sense of disposition in the society which makes him or her energetic enough to be able to face different problems that may arise during the day.

At home, good health can be a collective concept for it is also crucial to the well-being of the good family. This means that healthy relationships are required in order for families to function as a single organ. Without health, relationships may fall apart and this can bring both short term and long term damages to how we perceive life.

In professional spaces, health is crucial in dealing with different workplace situations and conflicts. If one is unfit in any of the mentioned aspects above, this can heavily affect how an individual becomes productive in the workplace. Of course, good health can be equated to productivity in this context and without it, more conflicts may arise that may be very hard to deal with.

To achieve good health, we as individuals should know the proper steps in nurturing ourselves. We need to be able to take care of ourselves in order to also know how to take care of others around us. Knowing to take the right meals, eat healthy food, drink the proper amount of water and get the right hours of sleep are the basic things that we need to master. What comes after these are more self-conscious steps that can then nourish our mental health; this includes engaging in healthy discussions with other people as well as lively and productive conversations that nurture positivity instead of negativity. We must also know to surround ourselves with the right people so that we can continue living a live with less worry. Emotional health is also a crucial part in us, as individuals. This is heavily influenced by our social relationships as well as our perception of our own selves. The key in ensuring emotional health is to always gauge our feelings and knowing how to deal with it properly. If our own selves are not capable of ensuring all these, seeking our family, friends and even professionals for help is always an option. The worst thing that we can do is to deprive ourselves of good health. Good health is not a myth; it is something that we can rally achieve as long as we put our minds in it and as long as we remember how to properly value ourselves. All it takes is the right perception of our self-worth and some self-esteem.

Benefits of Healthy Lifestyle

If you’re about to write a “benefits of a healthy lifestyle” essay, make sure to check out our sample below! Here, you’ll get some ideas for your “benefits of a healthy lifestyle” essay. 

Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle: Essay Introduction

Choice of lifestyle, short and long term health benefits, benefits of a healthy lifestyle: essay conclusion, reference list.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as ‘A complete state of mental, physical and social well-being not merely the absence of disease.’ Physical fitness is one area of my lifestyle that I currently fail to meet this organization’s guidelines.

WHO’s guidelines recommend physical activity for all ages. In my bracket (18-64), it is recommended that I do a minimum of 150 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity aerobics in bouts of at least 10 minutes. Muscle strengthening undertakings should also be carried out at least twice a week.

It is in addition to leisure time and physical activities such as walking, hiking, swimming, and gardening. A healthy balanced diet should accompany it (Greenberg et al., 2004). An analysis of my routine depicts that I fall short of following these guidelines. As such, I have resolved to adopt a different lifestyle to enhance my physical well-being.

My new choice of lifestyle will entail healthy eating and increased physical exercise. Eating a healthy diet will be necessary for weight management and improvement of the quality of life, especially during my old age. Using scientific data to determine the amount of calories accrued from each food type, I can regulate my intake to ensure I only take the nutritionally recommended portions.

Nutritionists state that eating more fruits and cereals is vital in providing vitamins and minerals. Vitamins contribute to the functioning of various body processes. These include in-tissue growth, antioxidants, and mediating cellular regulation. They facilitate chemical reactions in the body cells by functioning as cofactors in enzymatic pathways.

Such other vitamins as biotin are essential in the formation of fatty acids. I also intend to lower my fat intake (Richards, 2009). In response, I will adopt only skim milk and fat-free yogurt and shift from full-fat salad dressing to non-fat alternatives. It is because fat has twice as much the number of calories as protein or carbohydrate sources.

Furthermore, fats raise cholesterol levels in the blood, increasing the risk of pulmonary disorders. Taking appropriate ratios of carbohydrates, proteins, and minerals such as potassium, iron, and calcium and taking the recommended daily water intake, my health will be on the way to recovery through losing unnecessary fat deposits (Winson, 2010).

Adopting a well-informed physical exercise program is another part of my healthy lifestyle change. Engaging in constant physical activity is known to burn calories. It, in turn, reduces the risk of accumulating excess energy trapped by adipose tissue in the body. It is essential in the regulation of body weight.

Physical activity also promotes the uptake of high-density lipoprotein, or the “good” cholesterol, while decreasing the uptake of the low-density cholesterol form known to be responsible for increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and other disorders, including stroke, diabetes, cancer, and depression.

Regular physical activity also improves muscle strength and increases endurance. It is in addition to enhancing oxygen and nutrient delivery into body tissues. It significantly boosts the performance of the cardiovascular system enabling it to work efficiently (Hu et al., 2011). Therefore, I will reap all these benefits and lose weight by adopting this new lifestyle.

The benefits accrued from adopting a healthy lifestyle are numerous. In general terms, a nutritious diet and regular exercise contribute immensely to improving the quality of life. According to medical and nutrition professionals, proper nutrition helps curb the accumulation of unhealthy body fat and cholesterol. The appropriate diet will also reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disorders.

The reason is that the diet provides all the necessary elements for health maintenance (Thomson et al., 2011). Conversely, exercise reduces the chance of premature death from disorders related to inactive lifestyles.

By increasing the level of high-density cholesterol, exercise will minimize the risk of coronary and other related health complications. Regular exercise increases bone density in the long run, which is vital in preventing osteoporosis. It also enhances general body composition by maintaining acceptable limits of tissue-to-body fat ratio, thus discouraging overweight and obesity (Chodzko-Zajko et al., 2009).

The importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle cannot be overemphasized. The benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle are numerous, with overall improving the quality of life. The WHO’s description of health as the absolute harmony among physical, mental, and social life components and not necessarily the absence of disease indicates that a healthy lifestyle is essential.

However, the simplicity with which this can be achieved depends solely on the individual. One can effectively lead a healthy lifestyle by adopting healthy nutrition, physical exercises, adequate rest, stress management, and high self-esteem. It has informed my decision to change my lifestyle to lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Chodzko-Zajko, et al, 2009, ‘Exercise and Physical Activity for Older Adults’, Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise , 41, 7, pp. 1510-1530.

Greenberg JS, Dintiman GB, & Oakes BM, 2004, Physical Fitness and Wellness: Changing the Way You Look, Feel, and Perform. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics .

Hu F, Liu Y, & Willett W, 2011, ‘Preventing chronic diseases by promoting healthy diet and lifestyle: public policy implications for China’, Obesity Reviews , 12, 7, pp. 552-559.

Richards S, 2009, ‘The building blocks of a healthy diet’, Practice Nurse , 38, 3, pp. 12-17.

Thomson J, et al, 2011, ‘A Simulation Study of the Potential Effects of Healthy Food and Beverage Substitutions on Diet Quality and Total Energy Intake in Lower Mississippi Delta Adults’, Journal Of Nutrition, 141, 12, pp. 2191-2197.

Winson A, 2010, ‘The Demand for Healthy Eating: Supporting a Transformative Food ‘Movement”, Rural Sociology , 75, 4, pp. 584-600

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Essay on Benefits of Exercise

Students are often asked to write an essay on Benefits of Exercise in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Benefits of Exercise

Introduction.

Exercise is a vital part of our daily routine. It helps in maintaining our health, improving our mood, and enhancing our overall well-being.

Physical Health

Exercise strengthens our heart and lungs, reducing the risk of diseases. It helps in maintaining a healthy weight and promotes better sleep.

Mental Health

Regular exercise releases endorphins, chemicals that make us feel happier and relaxed. It also boosts our self-esteem and improves concentration.

In conclusion, exercise benefits us in many ways. It’s an excellent tool to stay healthy, happy, and focused. Therefore, we should include it in our daily routine.

250 Words Essay on Benefits of Exercise

Exercise, often underrated, is a potent tool for enhancing physical and mental health. It is a universal remedy that offers numerous benefits, transcending age, gender, and physical ability.

Physical Health Benefits

Exercise primarily enhances physical wellbeing. Regular physical activity strengthens the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of heart diseases. It aids in maintaining a healthy weight, thus preventing obesity-related illnesses. Moreover, exercise improves bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, and enhances muscular strength and flexibility, thereby preventing injuries.

Mental Health Benefits

Beyond physical health, exercise significantly contributes to mental wellbeing. It stimulates the production of endorphins, the body’s natural mood elevators, leading to reduced stress levels and increased happiness. Regular exercise can also alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, enhancing overall mental health.

Cognitive Benefits

Exercise also plays a crucial role in cognitive function. It promotes better sleep, aids in maintaining focus, and improves memory. Studies suggest that regular physical activity can delay the onset of cognitive decline in later years, reinforcing its long-term benefits.

In conclusion, the benefits of exercise are manifold, spanning physical, mental, and cognitive domains. It is a cost-effective, accessible strategy to enhance overall health and wellbeing. As college students, embracing exercise as a regular habit can significantly contribute to academic success and lifelong health. The adage, “A healthy mind in a healthy body,” indeed holds.

500 Words Essay on Benefits of Exercise

Exercise, often regarded as a panacea for numerous health-related issues, has been a subject of extensive research over the years. It is a powerful tool that aids in the enhancement of both physical and mental well-being. This essay aims to explore the multifaceted benefits of exercise, ranging from improved physical health to enhanced cognitive abilities.

The first and most apparent advantage of exercise is its profound impact on physical health. Regular physical activity strengthens the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Exercise aids in the regulation of blood pressure and cholesterol levels, two significant risk factors for these conditions.

In addition to cardiovascular health, exercise contributes to better respiratory health by enhancing lung capacity and efficiency. It also plays a crucial role in weight management, as it helps burn calories, preventing obesity and associated diseases like diabetes and certain types of cancer.

The benefits of exercise are not limited to physical health; they also extend to mental well-being. Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It stimulates the production of endorphins, often referred to as ‘feel-good’ hormones, which elevate mood and promote a sense of well-being.

Exercise also aids in stress management. Engaging in physical activity diverts the mind from stressors, providing a respite from negative thoughts. Furthermore, the accomplishment of fitness goals often boosts self-esteem and confidence.

Recent research has unveiled the cognitive benefits of regular exercise. It has been found to enhance memory and thinking skills. Exercise promotes the growth of new brain cells and improves connections between neurons, leading to better brain health. It can also slow down the cognitive decline associated with aging, thereby reducing the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Social Benefits

Exercise often serves as a social activity, providing opportunities to meet new people and strengthen relationships. Participating in group exercises or sports can foster a sense of community and belonging, which is crucial for emotional well-being. Moreover, it can also enhance teamwork and leadership skills, which are invaluable in various aspects of life.

In conclusion, the benefits of exercise are manifold, ranging from physical health improvements to mental and cognitive enhancements. It is a cost-effective and accessible method to maintain overall health and improve quality of life. As college students, integrating regular physical activity into our routine can provide us with the stamina to deal with academic pressures and equip us with skills that are beneficial in the long run. Therefore, exercise is not just about maintaining physical fitness; it is a comprehensive approach to holistic well-being.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Health benefits of eating well

A well-balanced diet provides all of the:

energy you need to keep active throughout the day
nutrients you need for growth and repair, helping you to stay strong and healthy and help to prevent diet-related illness, such as some cancers

Keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet can also help you to maintain a healthy weight.

Deficiencies in some key nutrients – such as vitamin A, B, C and E, and zinc, iron and selenium – can weaken parts of your immune system.

More about vitamins, minerals and nutrients

Type 2 diabetes

Maintaining a healthy weight and eating a balanced diet that’s low in saturated fat and high in fibre found in whole grains can help to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

More about type 2 diabetes

Heart health

A healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy can help to reduce your risk of heart disease by maintaining blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

High blood pressure and cholesterol can be a symptom of too much salt and saturated fats in your diet.

Eating a portion of oily fish – such as salmon and trout – each week can also help to lower your risk of developing heart disease. The high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish are good for heart health.

Strong bones and teeth

A diet rich in calcium keeps your teeth and bones strong and can help to slow bone loss (osteoporosis) associated with getting older.

Calcium is usually associated with dairy products, but you can also get calcium by eating:

sardines, pilchards or tinned salmon (with bones)
dark green vegetables – such as kale and broccoli
calcium-fortified foods – such as soya products, fruit juices and cereals

As vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, make sure you get outside (your body gets vitamin D from the sun) and have plenty of foods containing vitamin D in your diet – such as oily fish and fortified cereals.

More about vitamin D

How to manage your weight

Eating a healthy diet that includes lots of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and a moderate amount of unsaturated fats, meat and dairy can help you maintain a steady weight. Having a good variety of these foods every day leaves less room for foods that are high in fat and sugar – a leading cause of weight gain.

Together with exercise, eating a healthy diet in the right proportions can also help you lose weight, lower your cholesterol levels and blood pressure and decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes.

More about how to lose weight safely

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Chronic Disease

Health and Economic Benefits of Diabetes Interventions

At a glance.

More than 38 million Americans of all ages have diabetes, and 98 million adults are at high risk.
Diabetes is the most expensive chronic condition in the United States.
Lifestyle changes and good self-care can help people stay well and avoid costly complications.

Diabetes in the United States

Current estimates show that 1 in 3 Americans will develop diabetes sometime in their lifetime. 1 Diabetes is a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how the body turns food into energy and results in too much sugar in the bloodstream. Over time, this can cause serious health problems and damage vital organs. Most people who have diabetes have a shorter life expectancy than people without the disease.

Quick facts

38 million people of all ages (about 11.6% of the population) have diabetes. 2
98 million adults (38%) have prediabetes, blood sugar levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. 2
Diabetes complications are increasing for young adults aged 18 to 44 and middle-aged adults aged 45 to 64. 3
Diabetes is more common among American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian people than non-Hispanic White people.
Nearly 1 in 5 adolescents aged 12 to 18 and 1 in 4 young adults aged 19 to 34 have prediabetes. 4

The high cost of diabetes

The total annual cost of diabetes in the United States is $413 billion, A making it the most expensive chronic condition in our nation. 5 6

$1 out of every $4 in U.S. health care costs is spent on caring for people with diabetes. 5
$307 billion A is spent each year on direct medical costs and another $106 billion A on reduced productivity. 5
61% of diabetes costs are for adults aged 65 or older, which is mainly paid by Medicare. 5
Among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 or older with type 2 diabetes, the estimated median costs associated with diabetes complications is $5,876 per person each year. 7
48% to 64% of lifetime medical costs for a person with diabetes are for complications related to diabetes, such as heart disease and stroke. 8

Strategies that work

CDC is working to help millions of Americans reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes and prevent or delay serious diabetes complications, which will save lives and lower medical costs.

Preventing type 2 diabetes

While some risk factors for type 2 diabetes, such as family history or age, cannot be changed, others can be avoided by maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active. To help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes, CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) delivers an affordable, evidence-based lifestyle change program. Studies show that the lifestyle change program, which focuses on healthy eating and physical activity, can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 50% for people at high risk. CDC and its partners are working to make the lifestyle change program available to more Americans. More than 750,000 adults had participated as of March 2024.

To make more people aware of their risk of prediabetes, CDC partnered with the American Diabetes Association, American Medical Association, and Ad Council to launch the first national prediabetes awareness campaign . The campaign includes a 1-minute online risk test and links people to organizations across the country that deliver the National DPP lifestyle change program. More than 12 million people now know their prediabetes risk as a result.

Preventing diabetes complications

To prevent complications in people living with diabetes, CDC and its partners are working to expand access to and participation in diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) services .

DSMES services reach over 1 million people with diabetes each year. DSMES services help people with diabetes effectively manage their blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol and get preventive care. Keeping diabetes under control through effective disease management can lower risks of diabetes complications. For example:

Effective blood sugar management can reduce the risk of eye disease, kidney disease, and nerve disease by 40%. 9
Blood pressure management can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke by 33% to 50%. 10 Improved cholesterol levels can reduce cardiovascular complications by 20% to 50%. 11
Regular eye exams and timely treatment could prevent up to 90% of diabetes-related blindness. 12
Health care services that include regular foot exams and patient education could prevent up to 85% of diabetes-related amputations. 13
Detecting and treating early diabetic kidney disease by using kidney protective medicines that lower blood pressure can reduce decline in kidney function by 33% to 37%. 14

Benefits of using proven strategies

Many effective diabetes prevention and management strategies are a good value in terms of cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Public health interventions that cost less than $50,000 per QALY are widely accepted as being good value or cost-effective.

Intensive lifestyle modification to prevent type 2 diabetes among people at high risk costs $12,500 A per QALY, compared to no intervention. 15
Self-monitoring of blood sugar levels three times a day by people with type 2 diabetes on insulin costs $3,700 A per QALY compared to self-monitoring once a day. 16
Screening for eye complications every 1 to 2 years costs $8,763 A per QALY compared to no screening. 16
Annual screening for chronic kidney disease costs $21,000 B per QALY compared to no screening. 17
Costs were measured in 2017 U.S. dollars.
Costs were measured in 2006 U.S. dollars. Older cost estimates are likely to be underestimates.
Koyama AK, Cheng YJ, Brinks R, et. al. Trends in lifetime risk and years of potential life lost from diabetes in the United States, 1997-2018. PLOS One . 2022;17(5):e0268805.
National Diabetes Statistics Report website. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reviewed November 29, 2023. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/php/data-research/index.html
Gregg EW, Hora I, Benoit SR. Resurgence in diabetes-related complications. JAMA . 2019;321(19):1867–1868.
Andes LJ, Cheng YJ, Rolka DB, Gregg EW, Imperatore G. Prevalence of prediabetes among adolescents and young adults in the United States, 2005–2016. JAMA Peds . 2020;174(2):e194498.
American Diabetes Association. Economic costs of diabetes in the US in 2017. Diabetes Care . 2018;41(5):917–928.
Dieleman JL, Baral R, Birger M, et al. US spending on personal health care and public health, 1996–2013. JAMA . 2016;316(24):2627–2646.
Wang Y, Zhang P, Shao H, et al. Medical costs associated with diabetes complications in Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care . 2022;45(11):2570-2576.
Zhuo X, Zhang P, Hoerger TJ. Lifetime direct medical costs of treating type 2 diabetes and diabetic complications. Am J Prev Med . 2013;45(3):253–261.
King P, Peacock I, Donnelly R. The UK prospective diabetes study (UKPDS): clinical and therapeutic implications for type 2 diabetes. Br J Clin Pharmacol . 1999;48(5):643-8.
National High Blood Pressure Education Program. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure . Bethesda, MD: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; 2003.
Daniel MJ. Lipid management in patients with type 2 diabetes. Am Health Drug Benefits . 2011;4(5):312–322.
Murchison AP, Hark L, Pizzi LT, et al. Non-adherence to eye care in people with diabetes. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care . 2017;5(1):e000333.
Geiss LS, Li Y, Hora I, Albright A, Rolka D, Gregg EW. Resurgence of diabetes-related nontraumatic lower-extremity amputation in the young and middle-aged adult US population. Diabetes Care . 2019;42(1):50–54.
Lewis EJ, Hunsicker LG, Clarke WR, et al; Collaborative Study Group. Renoprotective effect of the angiotensin-receptor antagonist irbesartan in patients with nephropathy due to type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med . 2001;345(12):851–860.
Zhou X, Siegel KR, Ng BP, et al. Cost-effectiveness of diabetes prevention interventions targeting high-risk individuals and whole populations: a systematic review. Diabetes Care . 2020;43(7):1593–1616.
Siegel KR, Ali MK, Zhou X, et al. Cost-effectiveness of interventions to manage diabetes: has the evidence changed since 2008? Diabetes Care . 2020;43(7): 1557–1592.
Hoerger TJ, Wittenborn JS, Segel JE, et al. A health policy model of CKD: 2. The cost-effectiveness of microalbuminuria screening. Am J Kidney Dis . 2010;55(3):463–473.

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CDC's work to prevent chronic diseases across the lifespan and help people manage their chronic diseases to prevent complications.

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Pickleball is everywhere. Here's why the fast-growing sport is good for your health

Once thought of as a backyard sport for retirees, the popular activity actually has several physical and mental benefits for all ages.

The shadow and legs of a pickelballer chasing down a ball during a match.

Utah business owner Ed Wertz was looking for a way to stay active after his gym closed early in the pandemic. His wife suggested they try pickleball for a date night one evening. “We've played two to three times a week ever since," the 71-year-old says.

The couple join the more than 36 million Americans playing what has become the fastest-growing sport in the United States for three consecutive years.

"In a relatively short time, pickleball has already reached the levels of running, basketball, biking and golf in popularity—and the wide age range of people now playing indicates its growth will likely continue," says Jim Edwards, a physical therapist and rehabilitation manager at Cleveland Clinic Rehabilitation & Sports Therapy in Ohio.

Originating in the United States in 1965 , pickleball is a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. Played either one on one (singles) or two on two (doubles) on a 20 x 44-foot court (for comparison, tennis courts are 27 feet wide x 78 feet long), players use a solid ping-pong like paddle to hit a hollow, perforated plastic ball back and forth over a net.

As fun as participants say pickleball is to play, the sport's primary benefit may be that it's good for the body and the mind.

"Pickleball truly is a whole-body workout that improves cardiovascular health, assists with weight loss, and can help with balance, coordination, and flexibility," says Matthew Anastasi, a physician and sports medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic. "It also provides a great opportunity for socialization and can reduce stress and provide mental health benefits."

Pickleball players playing on a rooftop pickleball court in downtown Austin.

Once thought of as a leisurely backyard activity for seniors and retirees, data shows the average age of participants is now 35—with younger and younger players joining every year.

For Hungry Minds

"We now have people of all ages engaging in it, including celebrities like Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Billie Eilish," says Emily Hemendinger, a psychiatrist and outpatient clinical director at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Even star athletes like Patrick Mahomes, Serena Williams, LeBron James, and Tom Brady have publicly touted their love of the sport.

Why pickleball is good for social and mental health

Independent of its trendiness or newfound fame, pickleball provides great social and mental health benefits. For one, because the game is not confined by age or gender, it's known to improve social lives by bringing people of many backgrounds together.

"Men frequently play against women, and kids commonly play with parents and grandparents—dynamics not necessarily seen in other sports or activities, which definitely makes pickleball unique," says Lance Dalleck, an exercise and sports scientist at Western Colorado University.

The regular social interaction that is common to pickleball both while playing and as participants rotate courts and partners is one reason multiple studies show the game reducing feelings of loneliness , decreasing depressive symptoms , and increasing life satisfaction .

"These benefits are especially important among older adults as they are more likely to be isolated and experience depression and anxiety," says Hemendinger.

Indeed, o ne study measured multiple levels of connection among seniors and found that "the highest connection levels occurred in those who played pickleball multiple times a month for at least one year," explains Michael Fredericson, a physician and the director of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation division at Stanford University.

The sport also helps with mental agility .

"Pickleball aids cognitive functions such as reaction times, cognitive flexibility, and complex thinking," says Hemendinger. It accomplishes this, she explains, because each fast-paced game requires players to hold multiple concepts at once such as proper positioning and technique, anticipating where the ball or your teammate is going to be, and constantly having to react to your opponent—all while being mindful of server rotation, court rules, and staying on top of a complex scoring system. "You have to keep the big picture and many details in mind in order to be successful," she says.

Despite these layers of focus and concentration; the social, fun, and competitive components of the sport have been shown to help people better manage emotions and stress and anxiety levels.

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"We encourage exercise, in part, because it helps to release endorphins and hopefully distracts from the stressors of our lives," explains Edwards. He says pickleball accomplishes these goals and more, "making it a useful tool for improving mental health."

Physical benefits abound

Pickleball's physical benefits are no less compelling.

"Pickleball is a great workout for the whole body as it works both lower and upper extremities," says Hemendinger.

This includes building and toning lower-body muscles like hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps, and calves; plus upper body ones like triceps, pectorals, deltoids, the erector spinae, and all core muscles. Various muscle groups may be affected "every time you run, jump, or move in different directions because each movement promotes positive adaptations throughout bodily structures," says Landon Uetz, an Arizona-based physiotherapist who specializes in treating and coaching pickleball players.

These movements also improve joint and bone health and burn between 200-300 calories per 30-minute game— 36 percent more calories than steadily walking the same amount of time. Pickleball also gets the blood pumping, as research shows that a person's average heart rate during a game qualifies the sport as a moderate-intensity workout, providing "improved cardiorespiratory fitness, lower blood pressure, and a better cholesterol profile," says Dalleck, who co-authored the study.

Edwards also praises pickleball for helping with hand-eye coordination and aiding in neuromuscular communication, better posture, and improved balance. "Eventually we are coordinated enough to hit a dink or a smash, maybe even put some spin on a serve or return shot," he says.

These benefits are especially beneficial in those 65 and older; individuals most affected by lower activity levels as aging occurs. "The combination of aging plus inactivity can accelerate the decline in fitness levels, which can markedly increase the risk for various chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease," explains Dalleck.

His research team investigated this age group specifically and learned that the average senior pickleball participant increased their cardiorespiratory fitness levels by about 12 percent. "This improvement carries important benefits as each 10 percent improvement equates to a 15 percent reduced risk for cardiovascular disease mortality," he explains. It's one reason, he says, "that the middle-aged and older adult populations might potentially have the most to gain by picking up an activity or sport such as pickleball."

Injuries are common

But it isn't all good news as injuries related to the sport do occur and have, unsurprisingly, risen with the growing number of participants. From 2013 through 2022 in the U.S., for instance, "there was a total of 12,021 estimated pickleball injuries," says Fredericson. He says the wrist is the most common injury location, accounting for about 70 percent of needed medical interventions.

Anastasi has treated many pickleball-related injuries, "ranging from simple muscle strains and sprains to lacerations, fractures, and shoulder dislocations, plus everything in between ." To avoid or reduce such issues, he suggests, "players need a relatively good baseline balance, because there is a lot of forward, backward, and lateral movement."

He also recommends wearing proper footwear and encourages players to stretch before and after each game.

And because pickleball involves hitting "a hard polymer ball at speeds up to 30 mph to 40 mph, protective eyewear is recommended,” adds Fredericson.

How to get started

Most community centers and pickleball clubs offer beginner classes and even one-on-one coaching, which is a good place to begin.

( 15 gifts for the pickleball lover in your life )

Wertz advises against buying an expensive paddle until you learn the game and says to be patient with your progress. "Though it has a much shorter learning curve than most sports, it can take a few games to get a handle on things, so never get discouraged if you're struggling—we've all been there."

Uetz suggests practicing a few times and familiarizing yourself with the rules and basic techniques, then showing up at the courts when others are playing to observe and jump in.

"Whether you end up playing for 10 minutes or until the sun goes down," echoes Hemendinger, "you’re likely to get a great workout—both physically and mentally."

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Why gardening can grow your mental well-being and cultivate friends

Research has found that gardening in the front yard, where the fruits of your labor are more visible, may foster social connections and better mental health.

Looking for a simple change that can improve your physical, mental and emotional health? Try gardening.

People garden indoors and out, in different weather and climes and with different intensities and goals. Research consistently shows that gardening has a positive effect on mental health and well-being. And emerging research suggests that gardening may also be a way into healthy behavioral changes writ large.

Why is gardening such a healthy pursuit? Research suggests that there are two main pathways that lead gardeners to mental well-being. One is through the connection with nature and its aesthetic beauty. But another, perhaps surprisingly, is how gardening can also be a way for us to connect with other people.

“I feel like it’s just about bringing the pieces back together of what makes us human,” said Jonathan Kingsley , senior lecturer of health promotion at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.

Why people enjoy gardening

Gardening can be a rich, multisensory experience, and gardeners typically cite the gardens as a source of pleasure and joy , escape or curiosity and learning.

“It’s the taste, the texture, the sensation … wind on your face and your hair, just feeling the elements of nature. And it helps people feel alive, awakening in some way,” said Jill Litt , a senior researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. “These are things that are very therapeutic.”

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Recent research suggests that the smells of nature may impact well-being, and nature sounds such as birdsong also boost mental health.

Like other nature-based activities, gardening may derive some of its benefits from reducing stress . The attention restoration theory hypothesizes that natural stimuli may decrease mental fatigue by gently holding our attention with “ soft fascination .”

But one trait that makes gardening stand out is that it “requires active participation” and “getting the hands in the dirt,” said Litt, who’s also a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “You have to do something.”

With weeding, watering, digging, sowing, pruning and other such horticultural duties, gardening can be a physically demanding hobby. And physical exercise has also been shown to improve mental health.

Growing greens and cultivating connections

Gardening may not only help connect us to nature, but with other humans. Community gardening in a shared space can build trust, as people look after one another’s plots of land, and offer help and advice. This social growth is slow and steady, grounded by a shared purpose, a sense of belonging and learning. “All of it’s textbook on how you build strong relationships,” Litt said. And the “garden calls them to come back, because they have a responsibility.”

But even gardening at home is linked to greater social connectedness. In earlier research , Litt and her colleagues found that home gardeners were more socially involved — more likely to communicate with local elected officials or participate in parent-teacher associations, for example — than non-gardeners.

Home gardeners were also more likely to positively rate the aesthetics of their neighborhood. Both the increased social involvement and aesthetics ratings were associated with better health. Participating in community gardening further enhanced these effects.

Other research has found that gardening in the front yard, where the fruits of your labor are more visible, may also foster social connections and better mental health, said Lauriane Suyin Chalmin-Pui , an independent researcher in Britain specializing in the influence of gardening on well-being.

In one study , Chalmin-Pui and her colleagues transformed 38 bare front yards into gardens for 42 participants. Three months later, the study participants reported lower stress and had healthier cortisol patterns.

The gardens provided more opportunities for participants to bump into their neighbors, and the plants provided an easy conversation starter. When Chalmin-Pui followed up with the participants after a year and a half, she found that people had gotten to know their neighbors.

Some had lived on the same street for 10 years. “But it was only after they both got plants in their front yard that they actually struck up a conversation,” Chalmin-Pui said.

Chalmin-Pui recalled another study participant who was dealing with mental health issues and physical disability. The woman told her that the plants were a “lifesaver” and that “it was the first time that she had felt human in years.”

“She felt that she was keeping them alive,” Chalmin-Pui said. “And the fact that she was keeping them alive meant that she was capable of doing something.”

Gardening as a way to lasting behavioral change

Many of the studies investigating the health benefits of gardening are observational and correlational, so it is difficult to know whether it was the gardening that caused the health changes or whether certain types of people who already had these health behaviors were more drawn to gardening.

In the first randomized controlled trial testing the effect of community gardening on health, Litt and her colleagues worked with 37 community gardens in the Denver and Aurora, Colo., area to more directly test how gardening impacts health. For the study, 291 participants who had not gardened within the past two years were randomly selected to receive a community garden plot or remain on the waitlist.

Compared to waitlisted participants, those who gardened had increased moderate to vigorous physical activity — on average, 40.6 minutes more per week. They also consumed more fiber — about 1.4 grams of roughage each day. After one season of gardening, they also reported lower levels of stress and anxiety.

Though the size of behavioral change was modest, it was a tangible start in line with other health behavior interventions. “We see gardens as an agent of health behavior change,” Litt said.

After the data collection ended, the waitlist participants were also given a garden plot, and over half started gardening the following season, Litt said.

How much gardening do you need?

Researchers are still digging up the details on what “dose” of gardening reaps the most mental health benefit.

In a study published last year surveying 4,919 middle-aged and older adults in Australia, Kingsley and his colleagues reported that gardening for at least 2.5 hours each week was associated with better self-reported mental well-being and life satisfaction. These benefits were stronger for adults 64 and older.

The time in your garden oasis is “competing against other forces that are impacting your mental health every day,” Kingsley said. Though the study was correlational, Kingsley theorizes that 2.5 hours per week in the garden may be a sweet spot to meet that threshold.

For beginners, you can start small. Just a few potted plants indoors is still gardening. Some plants, like mint, are vigorous growers and may be easier for beginner gardeners to keep alive. But growing plants you personally enjoy is probably key, Chalmin-Pui said.

And don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and make mistakes.

Gardening is “a kind of trial and error and just experience thing, which is life,” Kingsley said. “You’ll have lots of failures and wins in this. And that’s just what life is.”

Do you have a question about human behavior or neuroscience? Email [email protected] and we may answer it in a future column.

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

A close-up of a woman's hand writing in a notebook.

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

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In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

handwriting

Artificial intelligence is being used in healthcare for everything from answering patient questions to assisting with surgeries and developing new pharmaceuticals.

According to Statista , the artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare market, which is valued at $11 billion in 2021, is projected to be worth $187 billion in 2030. That massive increase means we will likely continue to see considerable changes in how medical providers, hospitals, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and others in the healthcare industry operate.

Better machine learning (ML) algorithms, more access to data, cheaper hardware, and the availability of 5G have contributed to the increasing application of AI in the healthcare industry, accelerating the pace of change. AI and ML technologies can sift through enormous volumes of health data—from health records and clinical studies to genetic information—and analyze it much faster than humans.

Healthcare organizations are using AI to improve the efficiency of all kinds of processes, from back-office tasks to patient care. The following are some examples of how AI might be used to benefit staff and patients:

Administrative workflow: Healthcare workers spend a lot of time doing paperwork and other administrative tasks. AI and automation can help perform many of those mundane tasks, freeing up employee time for other activities and giving them more face-to-face time with patients. For example, generative AI can help clinicians with note-taking and content summarization that can help keep medical records as thoroughly as possible. AI might also help with accurate coding and sharing of information between departments and billing.
Virtual nursing assistants: One study found that 64% of patients are comfortable with the use of AI for around-the-clock access to answers that support nurses provide. AI virtual nurse assistants—which are AI-powered chatbots, apps, or other interfaces—can be used to help answer questions about medications, forward reports to doctors or surgeons and help patients schedule a visit with a physician. These sorts of routine tasks can help take work off the hands of clinical staff, who can then spend more time directly on patient care, where human judgment and interaction matter most.
Dosage error reduction: AI can be used to help identify errors in how a patient self-administers medication. One example comes from a study in Nature Medicine , which found that up to 70% of patients don’t take insulin as prescribed. An AI-powered tool that sits in the patient’s background (much like a wifi router) might be used to flag errors in how the patient administers an insulin pen or inhaler.
Less invasive surgeries: AI-enabled robots might be used to work around sensitive organs and tissues to help reduce blood loss, infection risk and post-surgery pain.
Fraud prevention: Fraud in the healthcare industry is enormous, at $380 billion/year, and raises the cost of consumers’ medical premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. Implementing AI can help recognize unusual or suspicious patterns in insurance claims, such as billing for costly services or procedures that are not performed, unbundling (which is billing for the individual steps of a procedure as though they were separate procedures), and performing unnecessary tests to take advantage of insurance payments.

A recent study found that 83% of patients report poor communication as the worst part of their experience, demonstrating a strong need for clearer communication between patients and providers. AI technologies like natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics, and speech recognition might help healthcare providers have more effective communication with patients. AI might, for instance, deliver more specific information about a patient’s treatment options, allowing the healthcare provider to have more meaningful conversations with the patient for shared decision-making.

According to Harvard’s School of Public Health , although it’s early days for this use, using AI to make diagnoses may reduce treatment costs by up to 50% and improve health outcomes by 40%.

One use case example is out of the University of Hawaii , where a research team found that deploying deep learning AI technology can improve breast cancer risk prediction. More research is needed, but the lead researcher pointed out that an AI algorithm can be trained on a much larger set of images than a radiologist—as many as a million or more radiology images. Also, that algorithm can be replicated at no cost except for hardware.

An MIT group developed an ML algorithm to determine when a human expert is needed. In some instances, such as identifying cardiomegaly in chest X-rays, they found that a hybrid human-AI model produced the best results.

Another published study found that AI recognized skin cancer better than experienced doctors. US, German and French researchers used deep learning on more than 100,000 images to identify skin cancer. Comparing the results of AI to those of 58 international dermatologists, they found AI did better.

As health and fitness monitors become more popular and more people use apps that track and analyze details about their health. They can share these real-time data sets with their doctors to monitor health issues and provide alerts in case of problems.

AI solutions—such as big data applications, machine learning algorithms and deep learning algorithms—might also be used to help humans analyze large data sets to help clinical and other decision-making. AI might also be used to help detect and track infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, tuberculosis, and malaria.

One benefit the use of AI brings to health systems is making gathering and sharing information easier. AI can help providers keep track of patient data more efficiently.

One example is diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 10% of the US population has diabetes. Patients can now use wearable and other monitoring devices that provide feedback about their glucose levels to themselves and their medical team. AI can help providers gather that information, store, and analyze it, and provide data-driven insights from vast numbers of people. Using this information can help healthcare professionals determine how to better treat and manage diseases.

Organizations are also starting to use AI to help improve drug safety. The company SELTA SQUARE, for example, is innovating the pharmacovigilance (PV) process , a legally mandated discipline for detecting and reporting adverse effects from drugs, then assessing, understanding, and preventing those effects. PV demands significant effort and diligence from pharma producers because it’s performed from the clinical trials phase all the way through the drug’s lifetime availability. Selta Square uses a combination of AI and automation to make the PV process faster and more accurate, which helps make medicines safer for people worldwide.

Sometimes, AI might reduce the need to test potential drug compounds physically, which is an enormous cost-savings. High-fidelity molecular simulations can run on computers without incurring the high costs of traditional discovery methods.

AI also has the potential to help humans predict toxicity, bioactivity, and other characteristics of molecules or create previously unknown drug molecules from scratch.

As AI becomes more important in healthcare delivery and more AI medical applications are developed, ethical, and regulatory governance must be established. Issues that raise concern include the possibility of bias, lack of transparency, privacy concerns regarding data used for training AI models, and safety and liability issues.

“AI governance is necessary, especially for clinical applications of the technology,” said Laura Craft, VP Analyst at Gartner . “However, because new AI techniques are largely new territory for most [health delivery organizations], there is a lack of common rules, processes, and guidelines for eager entrepreneurs to follow as they design their pilots.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) spent 18 months deliberating with leading experts in ethics, digital technology, law, and human rights and various Ministries of Health members to produce a report that is called Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health . This report identifies ethical challenges to using AI in healthcare, identifies risks, and outlines six consensus principles to ensure AI works for the public’s benefit:

Protecting autonomy
Promoting human safety and well-being
Ensuring transparency
Fostering accountability
Ensuring equity
Promoting tools that are responsive and sustainable

The WHO report also provides recommendations that ensure governing AI for healthcare both maximizes the technology’s promise and holds healthcare workers accountable and responsive to the communities and people they work with.

AI provides opportunities to help reduce human error, assist medical professionals and staff, and provide patient services 24/7. As AI tools continue to develop, there is potential to use AI even more in reading medical images, X-rays and scans, diagnosing medical problems and creating treatment plans.

AI applications continue to help streamline various tasks, from answering phones to analyzing population health trends (and likely, applications yet to be considered). For instance, future AI tools may automate or augment more of the work of clinicians and staff members. That will free up humans to spend more time on more effective and compassionate face-to-face professional care.

When patients need help, they don’t want to (or can’t) wait on hold. Healthcare facilities’ resources are finite, so help isn’t always available instantaneously or 24/7—and even slight delays can create frustration and feelings of isolation or cause certain conditions to worsen.

IBM® watsonx Assistant™ AI healthcare chatbots can help providers do two things: keep their time focused where it needs to be and empower patients who call in to get quick answers to simple questions.

IBM watsonx Assistant is built on deep learning, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) models to understand questions, search for the best answers and complete transactions by using conversational AI.

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7 Types of Teas That May Help With Weight Loss

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If you've been wondering whether to add tea to your daily routine to help with weight loss, you may be on to something. Certain teas not only provide a comforting and hydrating experience, but they may give you an edge in your weight loss journey, especially when it is a part of a balanced and healthy diet.

Beyond the potential for helping with weight management, tea is packed with antioxidants and compounds that can support overall health, reduce inflammation, and even lower the risk of chronic diseases. Whether you're a fan of green, black, or herbal varieties, incorporating tea into your day could be a delightful and beneficial habit.

Here are teas that may be able to support your weight loss journey.

1. Green Tea

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Green tea is rich in antioxidants known as catechins. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the most prominent of these antioxidants. Research suggests that these catechins can support a healthy metabolism and increase your body's efficiency in burning fat, potentially reducing body fat, particularly in the abdominal area.

Furthermore, green tea contains a modest amount of caffeine , which can enhance the metabolic rate—the speed at which your body burns calories. Caffeine can also enhance fat oxidation, encouraging the body to use fat more readily as an energy source.

2. Black Tea

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Black tea, though less heralded than green tea for weight loss, also offers significant benefits in this arena. The fermentation process that black tea undergoes increases the levels of flavonoids, particularly theaflavins and thearubigins , which are believed to contribute to weight loss and fat reduction. These compounds may enhance metabolism and help in the reduction of visceral fat.

Data has shown that black tea polyphenols are more effective than their green tea counterparts when it comes to exerting positive effects on weight.

While the caffeine content in black tea can also contribute to increased energy expenditure, these complex flavonoids offer a promising avenue for those looking to manage their weight through dietary choices.

3. Oolong Tea

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Oolong tea , falling somewhere between green and black teas in oxidation levels, stands out in its own right for weight management benefits. Known for its unique fermentation process, oolong tea contains a wide range of polyphenolic compounds that may contribute to its weight loss capabilities. These bioactive components are believed to enhance fat metabolism, increasing the body's ability to burn fat more efficiently.

Some data has shown that consuming oolong tea for two weeks increased fat oxidation, potentially helping people experience weight loss. Additionally, one report showed that oolong tea has been observed to reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, further potentially supporting weight loss efforts.

4. Peppermint Tea

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Peppermint tea may be another herbal ally to weight management but through a different mechanism than its "true tea" counterparts that influence metabolic processes directly, like green and black teas.

Peppermint tea may help weight loss primarily by promoting digestive health and appetite suppression. The menthol contained within peppermint acts as a natural muscle relaxant, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract, helping to ease bloating and improve digestion.

Furthermore, the refreshing, invigorating scent of peppermint has been shown to reduce appetite, potentially leading to decreased caloric intake. While peppermint tea may not directly increase fat metabolism, its role in digestive wellness and appetite control makes it a beneficial addition to a weight loss regimen, offering a soothing, calorie-free beverage option.

5. Ginger Tea

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Ginger tea may aid your weight loss journey thanks to its effect on digestion and metabolism. Ginger, with its potent compounds such as gingerol, acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent. These properties can aid in enhancing the body's metabolic rate, which, in turn, can lead to increased calorie burning.

One small-scale study showed that drinking a beverage similar to ginger tea (ground ginger dissolved in hot water) was linked to lower hunger, lower food intake, and greater fullness versus those who did not consume the ginger beverage.

6. Hibiscus Tea

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Hibiscus tea has a tart taste that can act as a satisfying calorie-free drink for those who don’t want to drink plain water. The primary compounds found in hibiscus, including anthocyanins, may help inhibit carbohydrate absorption, possibly reducing the impact of caloric intake from sugars and starches.

One review showed that hibiscus extract has anti-obesity effects and may help reduce fat accumulation in the body.

7. Rooibos Tea

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Rooibos tea, originating from the South African red bush plant, is a caffeine-free alternative that supports weight loss efforts in various ways. It contains unique antioxidants, such as aspalathin, which may help to regulate blood sugar levels and reduce fat storage.

Additionally, its natural sweetness satisfies cravings without the calories, making it an ideal substitute for sugary beverages.

Other Ways To Lose Weight Safely

To promote weight loss in a safe and sustainable manner, consider incorporating the following tips into your lifestyle:

Adopt a balanced diet : Focus on consuming a variety of foods that nourish your body. Include plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins , and healthy fats . Pay attention to portion sizes and try to eat mindfully, listening to your body's hunger and fullness cues.
Stay hydrated : Drinking plenty of water throughout the day can help control your appetite and support your metabolism. Thirst can be confused with hunger, so staying hydrated might help you avoid unnecessary snacking.
Stay active : Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, as long as this is acceptable to your healthcare provider. Incorporating strength training exercises at least two days a week can also help build muscle mass , which can burn more calories even at rest.
Get sufficient sleep : Lack of sleep can interfere with the body's hunger hormones, leading to increased appetite and potential weight gain. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night to support your weight loss efforts.
Manage stress : High stress levels can lead to emotional eating and choosing unhealthy foods. Finding healthy ways to manage stress, such as meditation , yoga , or deep breathing exercises, can aid in maintaining a healthy weight.

Remember, the key to successful weight loss is patience and consistency. Making gradual, sustainable changes rather than seeking quick fixes will yield better long-term results.

A Quick Review

If you are focused on supporting a healthy weight, drinking certain teas may help you achieve this goal naturally. While certain teas may contribute to weight loss, it's important to remember that they aren't a magic solution. For optimal results, tea consumption should be combined with other healthy lifestyle choices, like incorporating regular exercise, maintaining a balanced diet, and ensuring proper hydration.

If you are a tea lover, know that sipping on your favorite blend may be doing more for you than simply giving you a cozy moment. As long as you are choosing the right variety, drinking tea may also be your missing link on your quest to manage your weight naturally.

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Is papaya good for you? Here's everything you need to know.

Papaya has long been regarded as containing healing properties. To this day, both the fruit and its leaves are used in traditional medicinal practices across the world.

While more studies must be conducted to determine the benefits of papaya leaves, modern science backs the papaya fruit’s anti-carcinogenic and antidiabetic properties. The fruit is rich in vitamins and minerals, and there is clinical evidence to suggest that it has a role to play in boosting your immune system .

What are the health benefits of papaya? Two dietitians will break down everything you need to know about this nutrient-dense, healthy fruit .

Is papaya good for you?

Similar to pomegranate , grapefruit and cantaloupe, “papaya is a delicious tropical fruit rich in antioxidants, vitamins C and A and also contains some fiber,” says Jenna Werner , RD, a registered dietitian and owner of the nutrition practice Happy Strong Healthy . “Consuming fruit is recommended as part of a healthy diet, and a choice to consume papaya is a good one,” she says.

According to studies, papaya’s potent antioxidant qualities are known to reduce inflammation, benefit people with diabetes, and may even have the potential to prevent the onset of cancer. Combined with the fruit’s hydration properties, papaya also offers benefits to skin health , helping keep your skin looking radiant and youthful, per Healthline.

What nutrients does papaya have?

The antioxidants found in papaya − including vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and lycopene − act as “a buffer that helps to reduce damage to cells,” says Maya Feller , MS, RD, CDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist and co-host of Slate’s Well, Now Podcast . Studies suggest consuming papaya reduces oxidative stress , therefore improving immune functions.

Additionally, “papaya has papain, which is an enzyme thought to be supportive in digestive health.” Prebiotic fibers found in the skin and seeds of papaya serve “as the nourishment for the good bugs that are in people's guts.” These fibers also increase the production of short chain fatty acid, “which is thought to be beneficial with not only digestive health , but also whole body health,” she says.

Papaya is also an excellent source of potassium, says Feller. One study concludes that for people who struggle with hypertension , the blood pressure-reducing effects of eating potassium-rich foods are positive.

How often can you eat papaya?

“Like with most recommendations for nutrition, how much [papaya] is healthy and safe for you is a person-specific recommendation,” says Werner. Generally speaking, if you’re not allergic to it and you enjoy eating papaya, including it “in your balanced and varied diet is a great way to get nutrients,” she says.

More: How many calories are in an apple? Nutrition facts for the favorite fruit.

According to WebMD, a medium-sized papaya , which weighs roughly 275 grams and contains approximately 119 calories, offers 4.7 grams of dietary fiber. For adults, the daily recommended dose of fiber is at least 28 grams , according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. One cup of 1 inch Papaya slices contains 11.3 grams of sugar, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In comparison to other foods, the fruit scores mid-range on the glycemic index scale , according to Healthline. So, if you're diabetic, eating a standard serving of papaya most likely won’t spike your blood sugar.

Healthy Food Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on healthy food.

Healthy food refers to food that contains the right amount of nutrients to keep our body fit. We need healthy food to keep ourselves fit.

Furthermore, healthy food is also very delicious as opposed to popular thinking. Nowadays, kids need to eat healthy food more than ever. We must encourage good eating habits so that our future generations will be healthy and fit.

Most importantly, the harmful effects of junk food and the positive impact of healthy food must be stressed upon. People should teach kids from an early age about the same.

Benefits of Healthy Food

Healthy food does not have merely one but numerous benefits. It helps us in various spheres of life. Healthy food does not only impact our physical health but mental health too.

When we intake healthy fruits and vegetables that are full of nutrients, we reduce the chances of diseases. For instance, green vegetables help us to maintain strength and vigor. In addition, certain healthy food items keep away long-term illnesses like diabetes and blood pressure.

Similarly, obesity is the biggest problems our country is facing now. People are falling prey to obesity faster than expected. However, this can still be controlled. Obese people usually indulge in a lot of junk food. The junk food contains sugar, salt fats and more which contribute to obesity. Healthy food can help you get rid of all this as it does not contain harmful things.

In addition, healthy food also helps you save money. It is much cheaper in comparison to junk food. Plus all that goes into the preparation of healthy food is also of low cost. Thus, you will be saving a great amount when you only consume healthy food.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Junk food vs Healthy Food

If we look at the scenario today, we see how the fast-food market is increasing at a rapid rate. With the onset of food delivery apps and more, people now like having junk food more. In addition, junk food is also tastier and easier to prepare.

However, just to satisfy our taste buds we are risking our health. You may feel more satisfied after having junk food but that is just the feeling of fullness and nothing else. Consumption of junk food leads to poor concentration. Moreover, you may also get digestive problems as junk food does not have fiber which helps indigestion.

Similarly, irregularity of blood sugar levels happens because of junk food. It is so because it contains fewer carbohydrates and protein . Also, junk food increases levels of cholesterol and triglyceride.

On the other hand, healthy food contains a plethora of nutrients. It not only keeps your body healthy but also your mind and soul. It increases our brain’s functionality. Plus, it enhances our immunity system . Intake of whole foods with minimum or no processing is the finest for one’s health.

In short, we must recognize that though junk food may seem more tempting and appealing, it comes with a great cost. A cost which is very hard to pay. Therefore, we all must have healthy foods and strive for a longer and healthier life.

FAQs on Healthy Food

Q.1 How does healthy food benefit us?

A.1 Healthy Benefit has a lot of benefits. It keeps us healthy and fit. Moreover, it keeps away diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol and many more. Healthy food also helps in fighting obesity and heart diseases.

Q.2 Why is junk food harmful?

A.2 Junk food is very harmful to our bodies. It contains high amounts of sugar, salt, fats, oils and more which makes us unhealthy. It also causes a lot of problems like obesity and high blood pressure. Therefore, we must not have junk food more and encourage healthy eating habits.

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