30 minutes of daily exercise reduces premature mortality
The sedentary lifestyle is one of the four factors with the highest risk of death, as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and estimates that approximately 3.2 million deaths a year are due to the lack of daily exercise. At European level, the European Heart Network (EHN) has made a ranking of the countries with the highest rate of sedentarism, and Spain has been in fourth place with 42% inactivity among Spaniards over 18 years.
Exercising lengthens life and improves the quality of life
And is that if overweight and obesity, diet has played a leading role so far, the latest study conducted by the University of Cambridge has concluded that while obesity is related to about 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths that occur in Europe, specifically sedentary lifestyle is linked to twice the number of deaths, 676,000.
This report published by American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has followed 334,161 Europeans (men and women) for 12 years and wants to send a key message: to live longer and better we must end sedentary lifestyle. It takes 20 minutes of walking a day to burn between 90 and 10 calories and reduce the risk of premature death between 16 and 30 percent in the group of inactive people. Physical activity has many health benefits and should be included in our daily routine. But if the activity time is slightly increased and at least 30 minutes of daily exercise are performed, not only is this mortality reduced, but also the quality of life is increased.
40 percent of the population declares itself sedentary
According to the National Health Survey, overweight has been increasing in Spain and affects 53.68% of adults. According to the same survey, 40% of the Spanish population declares itself sedentary (46.6% of women and 35.9% of men). Of these, around 16% admit that they do not do any physical activity, and 20% say they only practice moderately.
In this same line, we found data from WHO that say that 42% of Spaniards over 18 years of age declare not to perform any type of physical activity. This figure is truly high, when compared to those obtained by Sweden (6%) or Finland (7%). Portugal is situated above Spain with 55% of sedentary population, Bulgaria with 58% and Greece, in first place, with 67% of sedentary adults. The scientists showed that spending many hours sitting, either at work or at home, without doing any physical activity favors the body to age more quickly.
To fight against obesity: diet and exercise
But what is the vision we have of ourselves? As the report "Health and Wellbeing" of the Nielsen consultancy confirms, the average number of people in our country who considers that they are at their ideal weight stands at 28%, eleven points below the European average. We are the Europeans who are farthest away from our ideal weight.
However, we Spaniards show predisposition to take care of ourselves more through our food and the absence of fats, cholesterol, calories or salt influence when deciding the products of our daily purchase. Seven out of ten Spaniards attach great importance to these healthy benefits of food products. However, despite this predisposition 2 out of 10 people are not willing to pay more for this type of product.
Marina Berrio
