6 Good Habits That Might Cause Premature Aging

Habit 3: You drink water when you’re thirsty

It’s not the water that’s the problem; it’s the thirst. By the time you get thirsty, you’re probably already dehydrated.

Our internal mechanisms for triggering a sensation of thirst become less sensitive as we age. About 70 percent of adults between the ages of 51 and 70 may be chronically under-hydrated, according to San Francisco–area nutrition epidemiologist Jodi Stookey. Pound for pound, muscle holds more water than fat. If we lose muscle as we age (see above), we lose some of our ability to store water.

Chronic dehydration can put us at greater risk for urinary tract infections and may even increase the risk of diabetes and colon and bladder cancer, says New York City–based integrative internist Dana G. Cohen, M.D., coauthor of Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight, and Heal Your Body Through the New Science of Optimum Hydration.

“We’ve trained ourselves not to be thirsty because we don’t want to pee so much,” she says. That’s especially true in the evenings: Age-related decreases in a urine-concentrating chemical called antidiuretic hormone (ADH) can wreck sleep; by age 50, about half of adults wake up at least once a night to urinate. But that doesn’t mean your body doesn’t need hydration, even in the evenings.

Cohen recommends drinking enough water so that you feel the need to urinate every two to three hours during the day, and then honor that urge. Or eat more water. Plants are loaded with it, and their fiber helps keep the water inside the body for longer periods, while their minerals help the water penetrate the body’s cells. “A homemade green smoothie is more hydrating than a bottle of water,” Cohen says.

Habit 4: You stay out of the sun

Inside your brain lives a collection of cells that act like a clock for the body. Called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, it controls the body’s circadian rhythms, keeping nearly every organ and system on a 24-hour cycle. Its strongest signal? Sunlight.

“Like a rooster that crows to wake you up,” the bluish light of dawn entering your eyes “tells your brain, ‘Time to start the day!’ ” says Sara Mednick, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, and author of The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems. This has a domino effect throughout the day and into the evening, cuing your body to feel awake and energized for the next dozen or so hours and regulating appetite, mood and more. As the sun sets at night, its orange and red hues travel into your eyes, triggering your circadian clock to release sleep-promoting hormones. And you want to be sleepy, because sleep is when “you enter your most restorative mode,” Mednick says. “Muscles are repaired, energy levels are replenished, and your brain is cleaned of toxic by-products that build up during the day.”

But today people in their 50s and early 60s typically spend less than an hour a day in sunlight. Change that: At minimum, you should go outside for 15 to 30 minutes every morning, then again in the late afternoon or evening to take in those calming red and orange sunsets, Mednick says. This will give your circadian rhythm the oomph it needs. If mobility or caregiving issues limit your ability to get outside, Mednick recommends 15 to 30 minutes in front of a light box at a consistent early-morning time to boost energy, stay cognitively sharp and enhance sleep quality.

And you’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating: Turn off your smartphone an hour or two before bed. Your phone mimics the “wake up” messaging of morning light, making a good night’s sleep more challenging.

Habit 5: You eat ‘nutrition’ bars

Ditching the candy bars for nutrition or energy bars may sound like a wise choice, but think again. They’re one of many “covert sugar bombs” that pose as health foods, says dermatologist Rajani Katta, M.D., author of Glow: The Dermatologist’s Guide to a Whole Foods Younger Skin Diet. Prepackaged fruit juices and smoothies and “healthy” breakfast cereals are also high up on the list; many foods that carry a healthy halo can deliver more sugar than a person should eat in an entire day.

And more sugar means faster aging. Excess levels of sugar in the blood can combine with proteins to create compounds called advanced glycation end products — AGEs, appropriately — that stiffen blood vessels and organs in a process “similar to making caramel, where you combine sugar and butter and end up with a sticky substance that then turns brittle,” Katta says. Besides contributing to high blood pressure and heart disease, this causes something called sugar sag, as “consuming too much sugar can accelerate collagen damage and lead to wrinkling and sagging of the skin.”

Plus, even the best nutrition bars are, in the end, processed foods. That means they’re not as rich in nutrients as whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes, and fish, meat and dairy. A nutrition bar when you’re rushing like mad? Fine. But not as a daily substitute for real food.

One stealth way to judge the healthiness of a packaged food, according to the authors of AARP’s best-selling diet book The Whole Body Reset: Take a look at the nutrition label and add up total grams of protein and fiber. Then look at the grams of total sugar. If the protein plus fiber number is higher than the sugar grams, you’re probably eating something healthy. If the sugar grams are higher? Keep shopping.

Habit 6: You avoid eating eggs

While it’s true that eggs are high in cholesterol, with about 200 mg in each large egg yolk, research has found the cholesterol in our diets is only weakly related to dangerous cholesterol in our bloodstreams. For years, health groups including the American Heart Association (AHA) recommended eating no more than three whole eggs a week, but those recommendations have changed. Since 2015, the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans have said eggs can be part of a healthy diet. 

Eggs are nutritional powerhouses, containing choline, folate, vitamin D, lutein, B vitamins and high-quality protein. Lutein is especially important in the prevention of macular degeneration. Egg yolks are one of the few foods that have vitamin D, which can help prevent osteoporosis and lower diabetes risk. 

More recently, in proposed new rules, the Food and Drug Administration has said that eggs can be labeled as a healthy food. These recommendations are based in part on new research. One 2018 study of half a million people in China found that eating up to an egg a day was linked with lower risk of heart disease. The AHA now recommends one egg (or two egg whites) per day for those who eat them, as part of a healthy diet, although the group says those who have high cholesterol should watch dietary cholesterol.