AND NO BOOZE –

Jan. 2, 2024 – Sometimes trying to be healthy feels like just another item on your endless, exhausting to-do list. Here on NPR’s health team, we don’t want to add to anyone’s stress. The good news is that it doesn’t take great feats of fitness or a heroic commitment to good habits to stay well.

1. Get healthier without even going to a gym

Hate the gym? That’s cool. Scientists now say you can get a lot of the health benefits associated with exercise just by increasing how active you are in your daily life. Think of low-effort movements like sweeping the floor, strolling through the grocery aisle, climbing the stairs, bobbing your leg up and down at your desk or stirring the pot while you cook. Researchers have studied this kind of movement and given it the moniker NEAT, which stands for this mouthful: non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Learn how NEAT can keep you healthier and how to get more of it. 

2. Flip hunger into satisfaction with this cheap superfood

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic mimic a hormone that our bodies make naturally to curb food cravings. What if we could increase levels of this hormone (called GLP-1) through our diet? Whether or not we’re trying to lose weight, many of us would like to feel sated longer after we eat and be a little less beholden to our sweet (or salt) tooth. 

It turns out that, yes, you can increase satiety hormones by eating more foods with fiber — especially what’s known as fermentable fiber, which is found in foods such as oats, rye, whole wheat and many legumes.

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