Kicking two habits can bring big health benefits

Getting healthy doesn't mean having to overhaul your entire lifestyle. Just a couple of key behavioral tweaks can have a domino effect on your other health-related habits, with lasting benefits, a recent study reports.

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine looked at what it would take to get people to change their bad health habits, including consuming too much saturated fat, not eating enough fruits and vegetables, spending too much time being sedentary, and not getting adequate exercise.

What they found was that people didn't have to attack all four problems at once. Rather, changing just two behaviors — namely reducing the amount of time they spent watching TV, and eating more fruits and veggies — had a ripple effect, leading to a healthier lifestyle overall.

"Just making two lifestyle changes has a big overall effect and people don't get overwhelmed," said lead author Bonnie Spring, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a statement. "Americans have all these unhealthy behaviors that put them at high risk for heart disease and cancer, but it is hard for them and their doctors to know where to begin to change those unhealthy habits. This approach simplifies it."

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