WASHINGTON POST: 10 science-backed health habits for 2026 that you’ll actually stick to

If you want to build healthier habits in 2026, here’s my advice: Give yourself time. New routines don’t stick overnight. A classic study found that it takes on average 66 days of practising a new dietary or physical behaviour each day before it becomes a habit.

You need to make it easy to make it last. So choose one habit and list every barrier that will keep you from hitting the mark. Then pre-solve each one. If the weather stopping you going for a jog early in the morning? Find a 30-minute cardio routine on YouTube that you can do in your bedroom. Don’t have time to cook veggies from scratch? Frozen vegetables can save you time and money.

To give you a place to start, here are 10 simple, science-backed tips. I hope they help you get healthier in the coming year.

1. Skip the probiotics

Proponents claim over-the-counter probiotic supplements can boost your microbiome — the organisms that live inside your gut — and help with digestive issues, immune function and even mental health.

But the marketing claims largely do not match the evidence. As a gastroenterologist, I rarely advise my patients to start a probiotic — much to their surprise. They are even more surprised when I tell them that is part of the evidence-based guidelines: The American Gastroenterological Association does not recommend probiotics for most digestive conditions.

Instead, tat a fibre-rich diet. This time-tested recommendation remains one of the strongest-studied ways to promote and preserve a healthy microbiome and improve your overall health.

2. Don’t put plastic in the microwave

Did you know that microwaving food in a plastic container can release about two billion nanoplastics into your food? Micro- and nanoplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that scientists have found inside our brains, hearts and even placentas. There are a lot of unanswered questions about how microplastics impact our health. But one study found that people with dementia had three to five times more microplastics in their brains.

There are small steps you can take to limit your exposure. In 2023, scientists filled plastic food-storage containers with water or with a slightly acidic solution that mimics food. After 10 days in the fridge or at room temperature, there were millions of nanoplastics in both groups.

What’s more alarming is what happened after they microwaved those containers: Within three minutes, the containers with water shed about 200 million tiny plastic particles. But the ones mimicking food shed about 2 billion. That’s why I recommend you avoid heating up plastic in the microwave. Use glass containers to reheat leftovers instead.

3. Sleep with an extra pillow

Try this simple change to optimise your sleep position: Add one more pillow. But I don’t mean under your head. Place a pillow under your lower body. Here’s what to do:

Side sleepers: Flex your legs slightly and put a pillow between them to help with back alignment. This also reduces pressure on the hips and knees. Then, place the arm that is on the bedside on the opposite shoulder to “hug” that arm. This position more fully supports the neck and back. A 2021 study published in PLoS One found that side sleeping without these extra postural supports was associated with worse neck pain in the morning.

Back sleepers: Place a pillow below the knees. This helps relax your back muscles, supporting its natural curve while you sleep.

Stomach sleepers: Put one pillow under your pelvis. This can reduce lower back strain by providing support in the area where the spine dips. Belly sleepers should also opt for a slim pillow — or no pillow at all — at the head to minimise neck strain, as well as help keep the airway open.

4. Start resistance training

Want to age better? Start resistance training. Start now in any amount. You’re never too old, too young or too weak to start.

You don’t have to weight train at a gym if you don’t want to. Resistance training is any exercise where you work against an external force. There are many moves that achieve this — with or without weights: squats, planks, push-ups, deadlifts, glute bridges and more.

But most adults aren’t meeting the government’s guideline of doing muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

This is a problem because resistance training is a key way to delay the muscle loss we all experience as we age. Especially for women. Resistance training can help address two critical issues of ageing that disproportionately affect women: loss of muscle mass and bone density. These two are often linked, with increases in muscle strength helping prevent bone mineral density loss.

5. Eat two kiwi fruits a day

That is why I have been “prescribing” a dose of two kiwis a day to my patients for years now.

Kiwis are bursting with nutrients: A single kiwi contains 80 per cent or more of an adult’s daily vitamin C requirement and packs two to four grams of fibre. In addition to vitamins E and K and other beneficial antioxidants and phytochemicals, one of the kiwi’s most important properties is an enzyme called actinidin. Actinidin is present in only a few dietary sources besides kiwis (including mango and pineapple), and it can help break down proteins, aiding in our digestion.

Consuming a diversity of plants is always the overarching goal for a healthy microbiome, and I tell patients that kiwis can be a great addition to that approach. I’ve seen the benefits firsthand in my patients and even my own family.

6. Heat your feet for better sleep

Struggling to get good sleep? Try heating up your feet at night by taking a warm bath or shower, a quick soak in warm water or wear socks to sleep.

Warming the extremities before bed has been shown to help people fall asleep more quickly. It does so as well as many over-the-counter sleep aids.

Decades of studies have confirmed this effect. An oft-cited 1999 study published in Nature found that the degree of dilation of the blood vessels in the feet, such as occurs when we wear warm socks, was the best predictor of how quickly people would fall asleep — more so than melatonin levels or even how “sleepy” the subjects felt.

If you do opt for a full-on warm bath or shower, a 2019 meta-analysis found that doing so even for as little as 10 minutes one or two hours before bed helped people fall asleep about nine minutes quicker and boosted sleep efficiency — that is, the time of objectively measured sleep compared with time spent in bed.

For perspective, melatonin supplements help people fall asleep about seven minutes quicker, and zolpidem, sold as Stilnox, helps people fall asleep around 10 to 20 minutes quicker. So, all things considered, falling asleep nine minutes quicker is pretty good for something as simple as warm water.

7. Consider taking psyllium husk

In most cases, the supposed benefits of supplements popularised on social media aren’t backed by strong data.

But there is one supplement that robust studies have consistently shown may lower our cholesterol, dampen glucose spikes, help us stay full longer, and even aid in treating constipation and diarrhoea, all while serving our microbiome a sweet, sweet feast: psyllium husk.

Psyllium husk — or psyllium, for short — comes from the mainly soluble fibre outer shell of the Plantago ovata plant. It’s the primary ingredient in many over-the-counter fibre supplements, but what sets psyllium apart from other fibres are two unique properties:

It’s rich in arabinoxylan, a molecule that forms a gel when it contacts water, allowing psyllium to promote special reactions, including the conversion of cholesterol into bile acids, as it makes its way through the digestive tract.

When psyllium reaches the colon, it becomes a prebiotic for your microbiome, spurring the production of beneficial metabolites like short-chain fatty acids.

These properties result in numerous health benefits that are backed by decades of research. Compared with other supplemental fibres, psyllium also rises above the rest in its ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular, metabolic and gastrointestinal disease.

My personal preference is to get the tasteless kind (with no additives or sweeteners) that I stir into the cup of coffee that I’m drinking each morning anyway. That brew may taste a bit grittier — or even take on a jellylike consistency if you let it linger too long — but considering that’s where your personal sacrifice ends, it’s a (nearly) effortless intervention with potentially outsize pay-offs.

8. Get natural light in the morning

Here’s a tiny move that will have a big impact on the rest of your day: step outside and get some light exposure within the first hour of waking up.

That bright morning light is going to help you sleep better later, and randomised controlled trials have also shown it can improve alertness, productivity and depression. This is big, especially in winter when a lot of people deal with seasonal affective disorder.

This works because the sun has blue light that triggers cells in our retinas to signal our brains to halt the production of melatonin — the naturally occurring sleep hormone. It jump-starts your circadian rhythm so you feel less sleepy during the day. Even better: Try getting outdoor exercise in the morning. But if getting outside for an early walk or run is a non-starter for you, think about investing in a light box to boost sun-like exposure and trying a quick and easy routine indoors to get your blood moving, like the seven-minute workout.

9. Eat to fight inflammation

The anti-inflammatory diet that multiple studies have shown works best is actually quite simple: vegetables, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, nuts and fish. In one Spanish clinical trial, people were asked to eat more of these foods — and less processed meat and ultra-processed foods. Their inflammatory markers improved, and their risk of heart attack and stroke fell.

So which specific foods should you eat? The foods in the list below are rich in anti-inflammatory compounds, such as vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids,, beta-carotene, polyphenols and, of course, fibre. Aim to incorporate a variety of them into your routine most days of the week. When you’re planning a meal, think about emphasising lots of plants, colour and healthy fats.

• Whole grains, such as whole wheat, oats or brown rice
• Legumes, such as lentils, black beans and tofu
• Probiotic foods, such as Greek yoghurt or kefir
• Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach or kale
• Green or black tea, or coffee
• Dark yellow vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, carrots or pumpkin
• Spices, such as turmeric, ginger and garlic
• Flavonoid-rich fruits, such as berries and citrus
• Nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, almonds and chia seeds
• Extra-virgin olive oil as your main cooking oil
• Fatty fish, such as salmon or mackerel

10. Drink filtered coffee

Coffee consumption has been linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes, among other things.

Because of how much coffee we drink, it’s the No. 1 source of antioxidants in most people’s diets..

Here’s an easy way to make your coffee even better for you: Drink filtered coffee.

A 2020 study of about half a million Norwegian adults examined the difference in outcomes between brewing methods: namely, filtered coffee vs. unfiltered coffee (such as with a French press or a traditional espresso). Researchers found that unfiltered coffee was associated with higher mortality during the study.

A separate study found that drinking three to five cups of espresso daily or six or more cups of French press coffee daily was associated with elevated cholesterol levels.

The reason is that unfiltered coffee contains compounds called diterpenes.

These compounds can raise cholesterol in several ways, including by decreasing the liver’s ability to remove low-density lipoproteins from our body’s circulation.

Paper filters better trap cholesterol-raising compounds and keep them from entering your cup. So if you’re someone who drinks multiple cups per day, aim mostly for filtered coffee.

Dr Trisha Pasricha is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.