Live Better, Live Longer: The New Studies That Reveal Whats Really Good---and Bad---for Your Health

If you're not eating right, taking a vitamin isn't going to do you much good anyway. Bryn Austin , a professor of behavioral sciences at the Harvard T. Thousands of Americans work in jobs that afford them the privilege of sitting for the majority of the day.

To find yours, try this simple exercise: Sit at the end of your chair and let yourself slouch. Now, try to sit up straight, accentuating the curve of your back as much as possible. Hold this position for a few seconds. Next, release the position a little bit -- no more than about 10 degrees.

This is your proper sitting position. Staying hydrated is vital. Still, contrary to popular opinion, you don't necessarily need to drink eight glasses of water a day. Certain foods are also a good water source, so eating more of them may mean you need to drink less.

Just like your morning meal, your lunch should fuel you up, not slow you down. Instead, opt for meals rich in protein, fiber, whole grains, and healthy fats. Foods like eggs, lean meat, beans, and chickpeas are high in the first ingredient; brown rice or quinoa is a good source of the third; salmon, avocado, and olive oil are all rich in the last ingredient. Are your eyes dry, itchy, blurry, or irritated? You may be suffering from what ophthalmologists call "digital eyestrain.

Every 20 minutes, look at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. For a mid-afternoon energy boost, avoid the vending machine and opt for a healthy homemade snack. Sliced apples, nuts, carrots with hummus, Greek yogurt, and celery with peanut butter all make great go-to snacks. A team of geneticists made headlines in for a mission to document all the bacteria on the New York City subway. Before whipping out the hand sanitizer and tissues, keep this in mind: Almost all of the germs they found were completely harmless.

The idea could partially explain why children who grow up around animals and in rural areas are less likely to develop conditions like asthma than children who don't. Alcohol is one of the world's most widely consumed drugs, but drinking even small amounts -- as little as one glass of wine or beer a day -- has been linked with a host of negative side effects, including cancer.

So be mindful of portion sizes, and if you're eating out, consider taking anywhere from a third to half of it to go. That's something you don't want to be doing at night, especially right when you're heading to bed. The combination of sweat, animal dander, pollen, soil, lint, dust-mite debris, and plenty of other things is enough to make anyone sick, let alone someone with allergies.

So clean your sheets at least once every seven days.

This post originally appeared on Business Insider. As it turns out, scientists have been looking for answers to these questions too. Brew your coffee -- but don't drink it yet. Get your heart pumping. Or skip breakfast entirely. The survey also found that the more coffee you drink, the bigger the health boost.

Subjects who drank three cups had a lower risk of all-cause death than those who did not drink coffee.

By focusing on various European countries, where coffee is prepared in many different ways, the study aimed to prove that positive health effects of coffee endure, regardless of preparation and serving style. The second study echoed those findings, revealing that those who drank two to four cups a day had an 18 percent lower risk of death than those who did not drink coffee.

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They have very different dietary habits and different susceptibilities — and we still find similar patterns," said study leader Veronica Wendy Setiawan, associate professor of preventative medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine. Not to drop a cloud in your coffee, but doctors caution that people should still practice moderation when it comes to their daily indulgence, and nutritionists warn that adding flavorings such as heavy cream and sugar can increase your caloric intake and nullify many of the health benefits of black coffee.

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