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You Don't Need 8 Glasses of Water a Day

Plus 6 More Health Rules You Can Break (8 Photos)

M.D. and Alice Domar PhD on Mar 29, 2010 at 8:18PM

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You Don't Have to Be "Perfect" to Be Healthy

iVillage: In your book "Live a Little: Breaking Health Rules Won't Break Your Health", you talk about how women can relax and not worry about following traditional health "rules" such drinking eight glasses of water a day, getting 8 hours or sleep per night or getting five servings of fruits and veggies per day. Instead they should focus on living in the "Pretty Healthy Zone". Can you summarize the "Pretty Healthy Zone"?

Dr. Love and Dr. Domar: The "Pretty Healthy Zone" is the area which correlates with good health. For each entity that we researched, including sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress, and social support, we found the identical pattern -- a U shaped curve. Too little was bad, too much was bad, but that there was a much wider zone in the middle which was associated with the best health. We called that zone the Pretty Healthy Zone.

Find out all the health rules you can break and still live in the Pretty Healthy Zone >>

Filed Under:
- eating healthy

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