You eat right. You exercise. You go to the doctor for regular checkups. Those are all great habits to maintain throughout your life, but why do they have to sound so, well, boring? Staying healthy by having more sex and taking more naps is way more fun! If you don’t believe us, we dug through academic journals to come up with scientific proof that healthy choices can center around more than just vegetables and treadmills. Punch something, take off your shoes, go to happy hour, or try any one of these other weird health habits you need to adopt.
Eat soup out of a box.
Want to develop a single habit that will lower your risk of heart disease, brain cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and infertility? Give up canned goods forever. A slew of studies over the past decade have implicated bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical used to make the linings of canned goods as well as hard plastics and thermal receipt paper, in all these diseases, yet the Food and Drug Administration and many canned food companies refuse to ban it from their food lines. Some companies are seeking out replacements, but they aren’t disclosing what they’re using, and those alternatives could be just as bad (or worse) than BPA. Opt for soups and other products in boxes, which are BPA free, or in glass jars, if that’s your only alternative.
Take up hiking.
Scientists in Japan have started prescribing “forest therapy” as a way for people to relax and boost their immune health, after a study found that men who’d spent six hours hiking in a forest over the course of two days had higher levels of “natural killer cells,” which strengthen immunity and help fight cancer. The healthy effects of those two hikes lasted for 30 days…
Read more: Emily Main, Rodale
