Walking, grapes and fishing may improve your health. Here’s what to know.

Kaitlin Reilly

·Reporter

October 7, 2023·3 min read

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There’s so much health and wellness news out there. Here are some of this week’s health headlines and what you can take away from them to better impact your health.

Walkable neighborhoods may lower cancer risk in women

A study published recently in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that followed 14,000 women across three decades found that living in a walkable neighborhood may reduce a woman’s risk of developing obesity-related cancers. The association was especially strong for those living in higher levels of poverty.

Why it matters: The evidence that walking is great for your health just keeps piling up, with studies previously showing incorporating walking into your life can do everything from reducing the risk of dementia to lowering blood pressure and improving mental heath. If you don’t live in a particularly walkable neighborhood, you can reap the benefits by driving to a more stroll-friendly location for a weekly walk.

Drinking coffee or tea may benefit you as you age

A new study from Singapore, published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, found that drinking caffeine in the form of coffee, black tea or green tea reduced the likelihood of physical frailty, and higher caffeine intake was associated with lower odds of physical frailty, no matter the source.

Why it matters: This is just one more study that suggests there’s no reason for you to curb your caffeine habit. In 2019, a study from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee found that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In 2022, a study also found that drinking two to three cups of coffee per day may lower the risk of heart disease.

Grapes may help your eyesight

Move over, carrots. A study published this week in the scientific journal Food & Function found that eating grapes beneficially impacts eye health in humans. This was evidenced by the improvement of several different eye health biomarkers in the 16 people who ate the equivalent of 1.5 cups of grapes per day, compared with the 16 people in the placebo group.

Why it matters: A risk factor of eye disease is oxidative stress and high levels of ocular advanced glycation end products (AGEs) — which the dietary antioxidants in grapes can help decrease. Adding a cup or more of grapes to your diet can be one way to stave off eye disease. (And, hi, have you heard they come in cotton candy flavor now?)

Fishing may actually improve your mental health

A new study from the U.K. found that fishing had some serious health benefits for men. The survey of 1,752 males, conducted by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, Ulster University, and Queen’s University, Belfast, found that anglers were nearly 17% less likely to struggle with mental health issues like anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Why it matters: If the idea of tossing out a rod doesn’t spark joy, fear not. Researchers hypothesized that it may not be the actual act of fishing that improves mental health, but exposure to something called “blue spaces,” also known as aquatic environments. It’s not the only study to show the correlation between improved mental health and exposure to blue spaces — a 2022 study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, found a correlation between better mental health and adults who spent time in these blue spaces during childhood.