Those who attended the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Ramadan Majlis on Wednesday hoping to find out the one sure-fire way to live a long and healthy life were disappointed: there is not one answer. Instead, the US author Dan Buettner provided a range of simple habits, some of which were tweeted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Move every 20 minutes. Eat whole grains. Don’t gorge yourself, try to finish eating when you are 80 per cent full. If some of that sounds familiar to older Emiratis, that’s because the advice mimics a pre-oil lifestyle, when moderation and movement was more common than today. What can we learn from this? That walking to and from work might be better than going for a run after it; that sitting all day in air-conditioned offices is taking a toll on our long-term health. And, maybe, listening to advice from older people might help us live longer. After all, they’ve already achieved that goal.
