Outsmart Your Genes With These Five Habits

Put another way: You’re not a slave to your DNA. A whopping 70 percent of how you age is determined by how you act; genetics decide only 30 percent, and you have a lot of control over which genes get turned on or not.

Five simple habits help you trump any lousy genes: Stay active. Eat healthy foods. Don’t smoke. Drink moderately if you drink. Keep your weight (and waist size) down. That’s it. Even sticking to four of the five cuts your risk of diabetes by 93 percent, heart attack by 81 percent, stroke by 50 percent and cancer by 36 percent.

The earlier you start living by the five, the better your chances of avoiding midlife heart trouble. And that’s a good sign that you’ll live a longer, healthier life, says brand-new data.

Start now if you haven’t already! Walk 30 minutes a day (even 10 minutes can slow cancer growth). Eat little to no red meat, processed foods and saturated fats. Eat more fruits and vegetables, only 100 percent whole grains and nothing with added sugars or syrups. If you drink, have one (women) or two (men) a day, tops. Shed pounds if you need to. And get everyone you love (yourself included) to quit smoking.

Go on, take charge of your genes.