We all want to eat whatever we like, including fast food, and be able to stay fit and healthy (only?) by exercising. But did it work? Can we ignore our poor food choices?

A team of scientists from the University of Sydney in Australia studied risk of death, physical exercise and diet 360,600 adults based on data from the UK Biobank with the aim of testing the relationship between the three variables.

Small amount studies previously found that high-intensity exercise can counteract adverse physiological responses to overeating. However, the long-term effects of how diet and physical activity interact with each other are less explored.

The findings of this study now confirm the importance of physical activity and a quality diet in reducing the risk of death. For example, it was observed that for those who had a high level of physical activity and a good diet, their risk of death was reduced by 17% from all causes, 19% from cardiovascular disease and 27% from certain types of cancer, compared to those who had a poor diet and did not. physically active.

“Both regular physical activity and a healthy diet play an important role in promoting health and longevity. Some people may think that they can offset the impact of a poor diet with high levels of exercise or offset the impact of low activity with a high-quality diet, but the data show that is unfortunately not the case,” said the lead author. Melody Dingfrom the Charles Perkins Center and the University of Sydney School of Medicine and Health.