Activities like smoking, having a couple of drinks, eating red meat and watching television any time of year can each knock at least 30 minutes off your life expectancy for every day you indulge, according to a study.

In contrast, each day of sticking to just one alcoholic drink, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and exercising can be expected to add up to two hours to your life, it stated.

Professor David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, wanted to find a simple way of communicating the impact of our behaviours on expected length of life.

He suggests using the concept of ageing faster or slower, by expressing the daily effect of lifestyle habits as “microlives” (half hours of life expectancy).

A half hour of adult life expectancy can be termed a microlife as it is loosely equivalent to one millionth of life after age 35, he explained.

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People watching their weight should pay closer attention to how much alcohol they drink since it is second only to fat in terms of calorie content, experts have warned.

According to the World Cancer Research Fund, alcohol makes up nearly 10 percent of total calorie intake among drinkers, the BBC reported.

Having a large glass of wine will cost you the same 178 calories as eating two chocolate digestive biscuits and it will take you more than a half hour’s brisk walk to burn off.

According to Kate Mendoza from World Cancer Research Fund, recent reports have shown that people are unaware of calories in drinks and don’t include them when calculating their daily consumption, but unlike food, alcoholic drinks have very little or no nutritional value.

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If your New Year’s resolution is to live a healthier life, it might be best to ditch that diet because a bit of extra weight could actually help you live longer, researchers say.

According to an extensive research, men and women who are slightly plump have longer lives than those who are slimmer.

Analysis of the results of almost 100 studies revealed that those who were of normal weight were likely to die sooner than those who were slightly overweight, News.com.au reported.

However, those who were any bigger than this were around a third more likely to die during the months or years they were being studied than those of normal weight.

For the latest study, US government researchers read 91 previous research papers on the topic from around the world, involving millions of men and women.

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People who profess to be spiritual, are more likely to suffer from a host of mental challenges, a study has revealed.

The study found that spiritual people suffered problems including abnormal eating conditions, drug abuse, anxiety disorder, phobias and neurosis, the Daily Mail reported.

These people were also more likely than others to be taking medicines for problems regarding mental health.

Professor Michael King, from University College London, and his fellow researchers’ study was based on a survey of 7,403 randomly selected men and women in England who were questioned about their spiritual and religious beliefs, and mental state.

Of the participants, 35 percent described themselves as “religious,” meaning that they attended a church, mosque, synagogue or temple.

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