Research Roundup

Although regular exercise and a healthy diet are central to the prevention of several chronic diseases, there is debate over whether one can ‘outrun a bad diet’ through high levels of physical activity.

Ding et al (2022) hypothesised that exercise and diet quality are independently associated with lower mortality risk, and that high levels of physical activity cannot offset the detrimental effects of a poor-quality diet. To test this, they investigated 346 627 adults using UK Biobank data linked to NHS death records, examining independent and joint associations of diet and exercise with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality.

During a median follow-up of 11.2 years, 13 869 participants died from all causes, 2650 from CVD and 4522 from adipose-related cancers. Results showed that the combinations with the lowest mortality risk consistently included high-quality diet scores and higher exercise levels, but high levels of exercise did not compensate for the detrimental effects of a poor diet on mortality risk.