Simple Habits that Improve Metabolic Health and Reduce Your Risk for Disease
- Terri Edwards
- Aug 1
- 2 min read
More than half of chronic disease deaths are preventable
The leading risk factors of preventable chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption (1).
About 88% of Americans are metabolically unwell today, which increases the risk for chronic conditions like those mentioned (2).
Continue reading for some simple daily habit changes to the abovementioned risk factors to improve your metabolic health and reduce your risk for chronic disease.
Metabolic syndrome and chronic disease risk
Five factors define our metabolic health: waist circumference, blood glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and blood pressure (2).
When these factors are optimal without medication, metabolism is functioning well. Conversely, when more than three of these factors are below optimal, metabolic syndrome is present, and the risk for chronic disease increases (2).
Metabolic health depends on what you eat
Today, we have more options than at any time in the past regarding what we can eat each day.
The convenience and prevalence of highly processed foods crowd out whole food options that contain more nutrition and fewer calories, leading to an epidemic of decreasing health and increasing weight for most Americans, young and old alike (3).
Highly processed foods are stripped of nutrients the body needs each day and contain added substances that increase the product's shelf-life, but also contribute to disease in the body (4).
Metabolic health depends on your movement
Regular daily movement and exercise activate metabolic changes in body tissues like skeletal muscle, organs like the liver and pancreas, fat, and blood vessels, and reduce the risk for metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (5) (6).
Exercise helps with weight management, improves bone density, and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, and certain cancers, among other conditions (5).
Exercise reduces insulin, the fat-storing hormone, and increases glucagon, a fat-releasing hormone to aid weight loss (5).
Metabolic health depends on your body burden of toxins
Toxins can enter the body through air, water, food, and skin, while others can be produced internally (7).
Metabolism can be disrupted by environmental toxins like heavy metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA, pesticides, phthalates, and persistent organic pollutants as they interfere with hormone signaling and alter energy production (8) (9).
Simple habit changes to improve metabolic health
Eat whole foods like colorful veggies and fruits, lean meats, eggs, grass-fed dairy, nuts, and seeds, and whole grains
Eliminate refined sugar from your diet (soda, pastries, yogurt, etc.) and replace it with fruit, or a little maple syrup, raw honey, or allulose
Check labels and avoid substances that promote product shelf-life and harm the body
Cook meals at home to control the ingredients
Get movement/exercise each day, working up to 150 minutes/week of moderate physical activity that incorporates all four types of movement
Reduce exposure to environmental toxicants like pesticides, BPA, and heavy metals
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